Is This The End For Chris Smalling And Phil Jones At Man Utd?

Chris Smalling and Phil Jones were supposed to be their replacements, with Sir Alex Ferguson claiming the latter could one day become the club’s greatest ever player. Sir Bobby Charlton even likened him to Duncan Edwards, one of United’s great defenders who was killed, at the age of 21, in the Munich air disaster of 1958.

To say that it hasn’t quite worked out like that is a massive understatement. While they’ve both had good periods when playing for United, it’s safe to say that neither has fulfilled their potential or is a patch on their predecessors.

They are no longer young players with time on their side and great futures ahead. Jones is 25 and Smalling is 27. Having spent years learning from outstanding defenders, there’s no excuse for them to lag so far behind, other than the reality that they simply are not good enough.

Smalling has probably had a better time at United, and has played consistently well for fairly long stretches. He’s even third in pecking order for the captaincy, which has seen him wear the armband on plenty of occasions in the absence of Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick. But the troughs he reaches in between those peaks damage any sort of credibility he has as being a long-term first choice.

For instance, he had a good campaign in 2014-15, but this came on the back of a ridiculous red card at the Etihad against rivals Man City. Having picked up a yellow card after preventing Joe Hart from releasing the ball quickly, fewer than 10 minutes later he was sent off for a wild challenge on James Milner. After playing with 10 men for an hour away from home, United lost 1-0. It’s this sort of stupidity that typifies him.

Last season he largely played well before going off the boil in the final few months. He scored an own goal in the FA Cup semifinal against Everton, another own goal in the last game of the season against Bournemouth, and was sent off in extra time of the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace for what amounted to a rugby tackle.

It’s safe to say he owed Jesse Lingard a pint or two for scoring the wonder-goal winner; otherwise the defeat would have been on his head. Having waited 12 years to lift that trophy, he likely would have been chased out of Manchester if United hadn’t won.

Smalling has a poor injury record, too, which has improved slightly in recent seasons, but still has seen him miss far too much football.

Jones is the bigger culprit where this is concerned though. It’s beyond parody now how often he picks up injuries.

In the past five years, he’s been injured on 29 separate occasions, with the layoff time ranging from weeks to nine months. For comparison, Chelsea defender and England teammate Gary Cahill has picked up 14 injuries in that time, to illustrate just how disproportionate Jones’ poor fitness is. Maybe he throws himself about too much or maybe he really is made of glass, but whatever the cause, it makes his position at the club untenable.

While it was mildly surprising that both Smalling and Jones were called up to the England squad this week, on the back of a few especially poor performances for United over recent weeks or months, it’s no shock that both of them had to pull out thanks to injuries.

To add insult to injury, quite literally, Smalling was the player to inflict the damage on Jones, when a late tackle in England training ahead of the Germany game left him with a suspected broken toe. Although maybe that was fitting, given that Jones was the player who ruled Rooney out of the Chelsea FA Cup game earlier this month after clashing with him in training at Carrington.

As if that was comical enough, Smalling pulled out of the squad ahead of the Lithuania game after also receiving a knock in training. Given the way he defended in United’s recent 3-1 win over Middlesbrough, and how shaky he has looked at the back this year, it arguably was good news for the England team.

Jose Mourinho will be less than impressed that his squad has shrunk further ahead of the crazy fixture schedule that United have ahead. The pair are on borrowed time as it is, so this latest injury set back at such a crucial point in the season will do little to convince the manager that these are the players he should be relying upon next season.

Maybe Smalling has a better chance of sticking around, given that he can usually stay fit for longer than two months at a time, although Jones had put in a few impressive shifts at the back alongside Marcos Rojo when returning from his injury last November, before reverting to type in recent weeks and giving away a costly penalty against Bournemouth.

He was also caught dithering in the away leg against Rostov in the Europa League and left United with a job to do in the return leg after the Russians capitalised and scored.

While there are a few areas that Mourinho will be keen to strengthen in during the summer transfer window, none can be more pressing than the defence. If both Jones and Smalling are lining up for United next season it’ll be a miracle.