Phil Jones left Blackburn Rovers for Manchester United in 2011.

Jones joined the Blackburn Rovers youth academy in 2002 when he was just 10-years-old. He progressed up and through the levels at Blackburn, before making his first-team debut in the 2009/10 season.

Breaking onto the scene as a well-built, teenage product of the Blackburn set-up, Jones was quickly hailed as one of the nation’s most exciting talents.

After two seasons in the Rovers first-team he was signed by Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United, joining for a fee of £16.5 million in the summer of 2011.

But United weren’t the only option available to Jones at the time. Talking on MUTV, Jones revealed that there were a number of clubs chasing him in his formative years at Blackburn:

“I could have gone to a host of clubs: [Manchester] City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and Everton,” Jones said.

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“He [Sir Alex Ferguson] was the last person I’d spoke to and I remember walking back out with my agent and saying: ‘I want to sign for Man United.’

“That was it. We hadn’t even discussed any personal terms, but I knew that was the club I wanted to sign for.”

Jones has since made 224 appearances for United, scoring six goals and lifting all of the Premier League, FA Cup, Charity Shield and the Europa League.

After Ferguson though, Jones has worked under a bunch of different managers, all of whom with varying degrees of success at the club.

“His understanding of every player set him apart,” Jones said of the Scot. “His understanding and level of communications with those players was the best I’ve ever been involved with.”

The verdict

It must’ve been every footballers dream, to play under Ferguson at Manchester United. Jones was once hailed as the next best, English centre-back to come through, but he’s largely under-performed in his time at United.

Although he’s been a first-team player for nearly ten years now, Jones has received mixed emotions from fans throughout, and it looks as though he’ll be finding his next challenge in the coming summer transfer window.