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Erik ten Hag explains shock decision to bring veteran defender Jonny Evans back to Old Trafford.
The reasoning for Manchester United’s surprising decision to re-sign veteran defender Jonny Evans has been outlined by Erik ten Hag.
The legendary Red Devils academy produced the Northern Ireland centre-back, who played 198 times for the team and won three Premier League titles and the Champions League before departing for West Brom in 2015.
Evans‘ career has now come full circle after the 35-year-old, who was a free agent at the time, first visited Old Trafford during the summer to work out with the Red Devils’ Under-23 team.
Evans cut relations with Leicester when they were demoted in 2022–2023 because he wanted to stay in shape while looking for a new team. He ultimately won Ten Hag over well enough to get a one-year deal with Manchester.
Ten Hag has said of that call, which allowed United to add more experience to their defensive department: “When he was in the summer, I heard he was in. He was to train with the U23, I said ‘Fletch, come bring him in with the first team, maybe he can help us’. I already saw in the pre-season the schedule, the problems in the numbers in the squad and then, yeah, we decided to sign him because I think he can be really contributing in the squad and you have seen how massively important he can be.”
Evans has made two appearances for United since re-joining the team, and in his most recent game, he made an impressive contribution by assisting Bruno Fernandes to score the game-winning goal at Turf Moor, giving the Red Devils their third Premier League victory of the year.