Ashley Young has claimed Antonio Conte would be a 'disaster' managing Manchester United - after the Italian revealed his desire to manage a fallen giant. 

Conte, 57, is out of work after leaving Napoli at the end of last season following a two-year stint where he won Serie A and the Italian Super Cup. 

Michael Carrick is still in post at Old Trafford and there are no immediate suggestions of that changing, but their struggles so far this season have raised alarm. 

Young played under Conte at Inter Milan, where they won a Serie A title together, and says that Manchester United's players would be unhappy with his love for running and lengthy meetings - even if he is grateful personally to the Italian. 

United's lack of running in matches this season has left them exposed and led to Gary Neville branding them an 'absolute disgrace'.

And Young told the Overlap Daily show: 'A lot of talk has been about Man United’s running stats. If they’re not going to run and Antonio Conte goes in there, it’s going to be a disaster, I think.

'He is throwing his name in the hat. Whether that is something that’s going to happen or not, I’m not sure whether the Man United players will be happy. I think you saw that when he went to Tottenham Hotspur. 

'Speaking to a lot of Tottenham players – and I had spoken to Chelsea players before I went to Inter Milan and was like, "So what’s he like?" And they were like, "You’re gonna run a lot, you’ll be fitter than you’ve ever been."

'But do you know what? That was one of the things where I think that I was able to continue my career for so long because of the running, although it was crazy.

'The training sessions were a lot of 11 v 11, at times a little bit boring. Meetings were long. When I say long, I’m talking, if we lost the game, we could go in and do the meeting after the game and it’d stop literally everything. 

'And you could be in there for three, four hours. I think that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t last long at places, because not just the players – he tries to test mentally – but the board as well, and the owners, and I think that people get annoyed with him.'

Conte has a dazzling CV, having won league titles at Chelsea, Juventus, and Inter, but he is also known for his combustibility and not lasting long in jobs. 

His longest gig was with Juventus between 2011 and 2014 but he is often too honest with people to retain relationships. 

He was sacked by Tottenham in 2023 after a savage 10-minute rant where he branded them selfish, accused them of lacking 'fire in the eyes', and admitted the collective spirit had regressed.

'They don't play for something important. They don't want to play under pressure. They don't want to play under stress. It is easy in this way. Tottenham's story is this,' he said. 

'Until now, I try to hide the situation but there are 10 games to go and some people think we can fight. Fight for what? With this spirit, this attitude, this commitment? What? For seventh, eighth, 10th place?'

Conte's name is being mentioned around United after he did an interview with The Athletic earlier this month and told them of his ambition to restore a fallen giant. 

He has been linked with the managerial role at Manchester United in the past and told The Athletic: 'If you go to a club where the history speaks for itself - a history made up of trophies, league titles and victories - you can only honour that history in one way: by having the ambition to bring that club back, if it isn't there today, to fight for those goals.

'I know full well that only one team can win every year, but I must carry in my heart, and instil in the hearts of the fans, my players and my directors, that spark, that hope that makes you say, "f***, we can win". You only make history by winning.

'There are many clubs that have somewhat lost sight of their history. I'd like to go to one of these clubs to dust off that history and make it shine once more.

'Clubs where there's pressure, where, ultimately, you know full well that you're not going there just to take part, but to compete.'

United continue to endure a tough period, with the club having not won the Premier League title since Sir Alex Ferguson's last season in 2012-13.

In the subsequent 13 years, United's only trophies have been the FA Cup (in 2016 and 2024), the EFL Cup (in 2017 and 2023), and the Europa League (in 2017), and they have rarely threatened to challenge for the biggest titles. 

There does not appear to be much chance of that this season, with the Red Devils sat 13th in the Premier League.