MANCHESTER UNITED COMPLETED the signing of Aston Villa’s Ashley Young, lessening the total number of protracted summer transfer sagas by, well, one.

The England winger, who can also play off a frontman, had agreed terms with the Premier League champions before jetting* off on holidays earlier this month and finalised the deal on Thursday. Young has only one year remaining on his deal at Villa Park and made it clear to chairman Randy Lerner that he had no intention of extending it.

As ever with these things, different sites are reporting differing price tags but the fee is thought to be around the £17million mark.

Earlier this week, new Villa boss Alex McLeish admitted that Young was destined to leave the club.

“It’s not confirmed yet but it does seem likely,” the Scot told talkSPORT.

“In my humble opinion it will be very difficult (to keep hold of him).”

Young – who was also a target for Liverpool – joins United’s other recent signing, former Blackburn defender Phil Jones, with Atletico Madrid goalkeeper David de Gea also set to join up once he’s finished helping Spain win the European U21 Championships.

*At what point does a person become famous enough that they can ‘jet off’ to Mauritius, as opposed to ‘fly off’ via several elongated European stopovers? Just a thought.