Manchester United may already know of one player certain to leave the club this summer – and it come directly from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s mouth.
The Baby Faced Assassin was discussing potential captains next season, and as he’s worn the armband before, Antonio Valencia’s name cropped up. However, Solskjaer added that the Ecuadorian won’t be here next season as it seems as though the right-back is set to depart on a free transfer.
‘We’ll see who’s here for next season and I’ve got a couple of players in my head that could be captain,’ Solskjaer is quoted as saying by The Metro.
‘We’ve had Antonio (Valencia), he’s going, we’ve had Ashley (Young), we’ve had Paul (Pogba), we’ve had David (de Gea), Chris (Smalling) has been captain, so there are players here who can be captain on the pitch.
‘We just need to decide who’s the club captain. Who’s going to be the voice in and around [the place].’
That certainly makes sense given his lack of playing time under both Jose Mourinho and Solskjaer this season. Valencia just seemingly hasn’t been able to stay fit, while Ashley Young has done a decent job for the most part.
Between him, Matteo Darmian and Marcos Rojo, only a handful of starts have been made all season and that just highlights how big of an overhaul this squad so desperately needs in the defensive area of the field.
While Valencia has been a brilliant servant for this club it does feel as though the time is right to let him leave. Perhaps a move back closer to his homeland of Ecuador would be a good fit. He could easily head over to a top South American league or even go join Wayne Rooney in the MLS for a season or two.
You simply cannot knock what he’s done for United, though, and it will be somewhat sad to see him depart.
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