Ashley Young still insists a bird didn’t poo in his mouth – so what was it? Yep, many of us will remember that gone viral moment.
Some say being shat on by a bird is a sign of good luck, however it’s only ever brought Ashley Young humiliation and mockery. Maybe that’s why he’s denying it was poo.
Back in 2014, the ex-England winger, who celebrated his 37th birthday this weekend, was subject to a rather embarrassing episode which has gone down in as one of the most bizarre moments in the Premier League‘s recent history, as you can see in the video below…
During Manchester United’s shock 2-1 defeat to Swansea City at Old Trafford in August of that year, Young appeared to be struck by some flying faeces.
To make it even worse matters, the alleged bird excrement some how precisely landed right in his mouth mid-rant as he slammed a teammate of his.
To this day, Ashley Young tries to deny it, standing by his view that the substance was something different and the events of that day were not all what they seemed. But what exactly did occur at Old Trafford?
“No, it didn’t happen!” Young adamantly denied while addressing the moment within a clear-the-air interview on United’s official club podcast back in 2019. “I’ve said this for god knows how long but it got to a point where I was like ‘I need to do an interview to say it didn’t happen’ but I just couldn’t be bothered.
“It had gone viral and is still going viral I think now and even my wife and kids turn round and say, ‘Yeah but the bird pooed in your mouth’. No it didn’t.
“It actually didn’t. And I said at the time, I’m sure the game was on TV, someone must have stopped it, recorded it, done whatever they did and put it together because it never actually happened. I think someone edited it because I know it never happened.”
After an extensive review of the footage, a MUTV director is thought to have solved the mystery of bird-poo-gate with it claimed that a player – off camera – gobbed off and the spit travelled over Young’s shoulder.
At the same time, the ex-United player had been issuing a passionate plea to his United squad members as he evidently told them to up their game. But the supposed spit lands in Ashley’s mouth.
The camera angle and timing of the two separate incidences makes it seem as though a white substance from the sky planted itself straight into the winger’s open mouth.
“I’m actually relieved that I’ve got the evidence,” Young added. “I think you can tell it’s not real because I think you can tell, if a bird s*** in my mouth, you’re going to have a reaction.
“Why is it that it’s just gone, or carry on filming me? There you go. It is what it is, it’s like, fair enough. I know what happened.”
While Young seems determined to draw a line under the episode immediately after it took place, his teammates are making sure he doesn’t forget it in a hurry.
Luke Shaw revealed to Match of the Day magazine that the rest of the Man Utd stars cheekily mocked Young by planting a fake bird above his changing room peg in the wake of the incident.
Absolute Animal Out There Today 👏🏾 Glad @youngy18 Stayed Away 👀🤣💩 pic.twitter.com/Bf1RfNTSt1
— Jesse Lingard (@JesseLingard) February 3, 2019
“Ashley Young is the joker in the dressing room,” Shaw admitted. “We still laugh about the time he got bird poo in his mouth against Swansea.
“If you ask him now, he’ll say it wasn’t bird poo. In the changing room we hung a fake bird above his place as a joke which he didn’t like.”
As recently as 2019, as can be seen above, Jesse Lingard poked fun at Young. During a 1-0 victory for Man Utd over Leicester, a pigeon landed on the pitch, and was photographed by a photographer.
This caught the attention of Lingard and took to troll Ashley Young. Posting a picture of himself in action in the background and the bird in the foreground.
Lingard wrote the caption: “Absolute Animal Out There Today. Glad @youngy_18 Stayed Away.”
Jesse Lingard reveals truth behind Ashley Young’s bird poo moment 🤣 pic.twitter.com/FzzndyvD5K
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) April 17, 2019
Patrice Evra once took to Twitter to wish Ole Gunnar Solskjaer a happy birthday – then decided to troll Ashley Young in the process,
Evra wrote in 2021: “Happy birthday my friend, always a pleasure talking to someone really humble!
“We were focused on that bird 🦅 that day because we didn’t want him to poo poo 💩 inside our mouth like he did in @youngy18’s mouth 🤣🤣🤣”
Happy birthday my friend, always a pleasure talking to someone really humble! We were focused on that bird 🦅 that day because we didn’t want him to poo poo 💩 inside our mouth like he did in @youngy18‘s mouth 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/5miahjbVwS
— Patrice Evra (@Evra) February 26, 2021
The much loved 442toons also made a whole cartoon video on the awkward moment with social media users reacting via tweets which included many memes.
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