Manchester United news: Ashley Young told to play 'funky house music' by Louis van Gaal - but De Gea doesn't approve

Young plays the role of United's DJ before matches, but his orders on what to play come straight from the manager

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Ashley Young has elaborated on Louis van Gaal’s preference to have house and funky house music in the Manchester United changing room.

The strict United manager, famous for his disciplinarian style, affords his players some leeway when it comes to the important choice of music in the dressing room before matches but demands that the genre is to his liking.

Young, who took over control of United’s dressing room tunes following the departure of Patrice Evra in 2014, revealed Van Gaal’s preference last summer, but he has spoken on the matter again to explain how he came about the role and what happened when Van Gaal wasn’t happy with the music of choice.

Speaking to Footballers Lives, Young said: “I’m the dressing room DJ. Patrice Evra was the last one, every time he wasn’t playing, or he was injured, I’d take over and do a mix and it went down quite well. There was no initiation. I just put my iPod on and was like ‘right, I’m taking over’.

“There are quite a lot of songs I’ll put on that everyone will listen to. But the manager, when he first came in, shouted Darren Fletcher over and said ‘I don’t like this’. So we had to change it!”

Speaking to MUTV last year, Young admitted: "I've been told by the manager I can only play funky house or house music.

"Seriously that's what he likes. That's what's on the playlist."

Despite Van Gaal laying down the law when it comes to pre-match music, Young admitted that the Dutchman’s preference wasn’t to everyone’s taste, and can sometimes lead to friction between DJ Young and goalkeeper David De Gea.

“When I put on a good tune there are some that get up and dance to it — in their own way,” adds Young.

Louis van Gaal after Manchester United's FA Cup semi-final win (Getty)

“People dance about and get themselves prepared for the game. Music can be uplifting and motivate you.

“In the dressing room you can play anything. With any type of music, you’ll always have some people that like it, some people that don’t like it, some people that try and turn it off.


 De Gea is said to have clashed with Young over the music choice 
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“There’s a bit of conflict between myself and David De Gea, he’s just got some crazy taste in music.

“It’s either dancing and Spanish stuff or it’s heavy metal, loud shouting and banging, just crazy to be honest. Whenever he puts the heavy metal on, a few people are looking around thinking ‘alright, we need to get out of here’.”