Before Ashley Young made his way up the stairs of the Jimmy Murphy building, Louis van Gaal could be found running an eye over a piece of paper marked “transfer list” and wondering what Manchester United’s chief executive, Ed Woodward, might think about being asked to find another £300m for new players.

We are here for Manchester United Foundation’s Dream Day, when the club open the doors of their training ground to supporters with life-limiting illnesses. United hold this event twice every year. Every player is involved and it was one of their guests, Mohsin Tanveer, who presented Van Gaal with that neatly typed wishlist. Van Gaal read it out loud: “Hummels, £36m; Clyne, £15m; Pogba, £75m; Bale, £120m; Memphis Depay, £30m; and Jackson Martínez, £25m.” A lot of money, Mohsin told him, but don’t forget United agreed a £750m deal with Adidas last year. Van Gaal liked this guy’s chutzpah. “I will have a word with Ed Woodward,” he said, folding up the piece of paper and putting it into his pocket.

Not too long ago, every United supporter might have had one of these lists. Yet we are here now, approaching the end of Van Gaal’s first season, and the need for change no longer seems so pressing. His team have outplayed Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham in the past month and the Dutchman described their performance at Chelsea last weekend as the best of his reign, albeit ending in a 1-0 defeat. Increasingly, it feels like the old United are coming back and, along the way, Young has emerged as one of the season’s success stories.

English football has certainly been forced to reassess one of its forgotten men if we think back to last autumn and the natural sense of order after Ángel Di María, Britain’s most expensive footballer, had been added to a squad already featuring Adnan Januzaj, the player David Moyes had described as “young Johan Cruyff”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ashley Young with a young Manchester United supporter on the club’s Dream Day, held at the Aon Training Complex. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Maybe we did not quite appreciate Young’s competitive instincts. The tattoo on his arm reads: “In life, if it’s not worth fighting for it’s not worth having.” He has certainly fought to establish his place in Van Gaal’s 4-1-3-1-1 system and there are not many people who would have predicted that when Di María signed from Real Madrid for £59.7m.

Young accepts the point – “obviously, with Ángel coming in, and the price he was coming in at” – but he also took his encouragement from something Van Gaal said in his first week. “The manager said very early on that he was going to make up his mind on his squad from pre-season. I scored a few goals. I played well and, since then, the manager has shown that he meant it.”

His return to prominence was encapsulated in the 4-2 defeat of Manchester City when Young scored one, set up another two and subjected Pablo Zabaleta, a defender who played in the World Cup final, to a backheeled nutmeg. Young has always had quick feet and accuracy with his crossing but it is his ability to fit into the structural setup of Van Gaal’s “philosophy” that also appears to appeal to his manager.

“A lot of it is about positioning,” the player explains. “I think nowadays you have to think about football a lot more and about decision-making. I’m still operating as a wide player, and I’m still free to express myself, try to get one-v-one and get past someone, and there’s no better feeling than getting over a great cross and someone scoring. But I have also played left wing-back and right wing-back, which has been a bit new to me, and I’ve even had a go at left-back when we played Swansea, up against Wayne Routledge, and that was different as well trying to stop that kind of tricky winger. Players have to adapt nowadays and if you have a good football brain, if you can read the game, you can manage it.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ashley Young signed for Manchester United in 2011 but struggled to get into the starting XI under David Moyes: ‘Sometimes I wasn’t even in the squad.’ Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

We have certainly waited a long time for Van Gaal’s plans to click but there are now clear indications. On the left, Young’s link-up play with Daley Blind and Marouane Fellaini has been one of the more prominent features. “That’s been brilliant, the three of us playing in those triangles and the same the other side with Antonio [Valencia], Ander [Herrera] and Juan [Mata]. There are some cool heads there, and a lot of players who are now playing with more composure, not scared to give each other the ball, or play it in tight spaces.”

Van Gaal, he says, has provided the new club with a force of personality. “You don’t manage the teams he has managed without having that big, bold personality. He wants to be successful. He wants every detail spot on. As players, you want to be challenged and that’s exactly what he does: he challenges us every single day. It was always going to take time, but it is all starting to come together. If you look at the last run of games, even last week against Chelsea when on another day we would have scored two or three goals, we will definitely be back challenging for the title next season.”

By then, it would be a surprise if Young has not been awarded a new contract. His current one expires at the end of next season and the 29-year-old says there have not been any discussions yet about an extension. His expectation is that the first conversations will begin in the summer.

An England recall must also be possible for a player who has not been involved in Roy Hodgson’s plans since the World Cup qualifier against Ukraine in September 2013. “I felt I could have been in the last squad. All I can do is keep playing as well as I can for United. There are a lot of players competing for that wide attacking role and, if I’m brutally honest, if you aren’t playing regularly you can’t get picked. I found that out, missing out on the World Cup. He [Hodgson] said you had to be playing regularly and be on form and I wasn’t doing that. But I do believe I can get back in the squad. If I keep playing well for United, hopefully the England manager will come back.”

His newly improved status, and the increased sense of appreciation from the Old Trafford crowd, has also coincided with a controversy-free run, devoid of the dives that once led Sir Alex Ferguson to say he was going to speak to his player about the dangers of getting a bad reputation. Young has no appetite to discuss it at length but the truth is he always thought it was overblown. “I don’t want any controversy. We did have a conversation, we did talk about it and everyone is entitled to their opinion. It was talked about a lot but, for me, it was always down to the referees to give decisions.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ashley Young, middle, celebrates with Wayne Rooney, left, and Juan Mata after the latter’s goal against Manchester City in the 4-2 win on 12 April, 2015. Photograph: Matt West/BPI/REX Shutterstock

There is one thing, however, he does want to clear up. One day last week, Young went to his locker and found one of his team-mates (unidentified) had got there before him. “There was a bird above my locker. Not a real one. I think one of the lads must have gone to a garden centre and bought a fake pigeon.”

The joke goes back to an internet clip that shows something suspicious flying into Young’s mouth during the opening game of the season. This is his chance to put the record straight. “I can, 100%, absolutely confirm it was not bird poo. But I’d love to know who put that video out and how they did it. Or what my reaction might have been if it actually was.”

It’s not the orthodox way to wrap up a football interview. Yet everything about the Young story has been unusual bearing in mind the way his stock had fallen under Moyes. “The last manager had his plans and I wasn’t in the team. A couple of times I wasn’t even on the bench. It was disappointing but that was then and this is now.”