{"id":438080,"date":"2011-06-08T12:46:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-08T12:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/"},"modified":"2011-06-08T12:46:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-08T12:46:00","slug":"blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<h4>8 Jun 2011 13:46:00<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<div readability=\"73.8919698314\">\n<div readability=\"12.8735632184\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Phil Jones of Blackburn (Getty Images)\" src=\"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Phil Jones of Blackburn (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<h4>Related Links<\/h4>\n<h4>Teams<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p><span readability=\"45.6578400831\"><strong>EXCLUSIVE<\/strong><br \/>By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/news\/3447\/greg-stobart\/archive\/1\">Greg Stobart<\/a> | Northern Correspondent<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/teams\/england\/108\/blackburn-rovers\">Blackburn Rovers<\/a> star <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/people\/england\/34529\/phil-jones\">Phil Jones<\/a> is having a medical at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/teams\/england\/97\/manchester-united\">Manchester United<\/a> ahead of a \u00a316 million move to Old Trafford, <strong>Goal.com UK<\/strong> can confirm.<\/p>\n<p>The highly rated defender is expected to sign a five-year contract after Sir Alex Ferguson made a last ditch swoop to steal him from under Liverpool&#8217;s noses.<\/p>\n<p>Jones, 19, had looked close to a switch to Anfield on Wednesday morning and some bookmakers suspended betting on him joining Liverpool as reports claimed he was having a medical on Merseyside.<\/p>\n<p>But Ferguson has been tracking the England under-21 international closely over the last 18 months and made his move after learning that Liverpool had met the \uffe116m clause in his Blackburn contract.<\/p>\n<p>Jones, who can also play as a defensive midfielder, is unlikely to play as much at Old Trafford as he might have done for Liverpool, but the lure of playing for the Premier League champions proved too difficult to turn down. He will compete for a starting spot with centre-backs Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans.<\/p>\n<p>Jones, who has also been a target for Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham, made 26 league appearances for Blackburn last season and has been a key player since making his debut in March 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson, armed with a \uffe150m summer transfer kitty, has been looking for a young central defender and 18-year-old Lens star Raphael Varane was reported as a target.<\/p>\n<p>The Scot is understood to have been ready to wait for Jones to develop for one more season at Ewood Park but his hand was forced as Liverpool edged closer to a deal on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Jones, a wholehearted defender who is dominant in the air, has been tipped by many to become the long-term successor to England captain John Terry.<\/p>\n<p>He was supposed to fly out to Denmark on Wednesday for the European under-21 Championships but will now join the rest of the England squad later in the week. \u2028<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Follow Greg Stobart on <span><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/GoalUK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"c4\" src=\"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/93900\/93900.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"75\" height=\"18\" \/><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The rest is here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/news\/2896\/premier-league\/2011\/06\/08\/2523284\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-\" title=\"Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> 8 Jun 2011 13:46:00 Phil Jones of Blackburn (Getty Images) Related Links Teams EXCLUSIVE By Greg Stobart | Northern Correspondent Blackburn Rovers star Phil Jones is having a medical at Manchester United ahead of a \u00a316 million move to Old Trafford, Goal.com UK can confirm. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-438080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"8 Jun 2011 13:46:00 Phil Jones of Blackburn (Getty Images) Related Links Teams EXCLUSIVE By Greg Stobart | Northern Correspondent Blackburn Rovers star Phil Jones is having a medical at Manchester United ahead of a \u00a316 million move to Old Trafford, Goal.com UK can confirm.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-08T12:46:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/\"},\"wordCount\":374,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/\",\"name\":\"Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-08T12:46:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"8 Jun 2011 13:46:00 Phil Jones of Blackburn (Getty Images) Related Links Teams EXCLUSIVE By Greg Stobart | Northern Correspondent Blackburn Rovers star Phil Jones is having a medical at Manchester United ahead of a \u00a316 million move to Old Trafford, Goal.com UK can confirm.","twitter_image":"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United","datePublished":"2011-06-08T12:46:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/"},"wordCount":374,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/","name":"Blackburn Rovers defender Phil Jones having medical ahead of \u00a316m move to Manchester United - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg","datePublished":"2011-06-08T12:46:00+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/06\/08\/blackburn-rovers-defender-phil-jones-having-medical-ahead-of-16m-move-to-manchester-united\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/u.goal.com\/115400\/115424_news.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}