Youri Tielemans says he was not expecting to leave Aston Villa this summer before completing a surprise £35m move to Manchester United, despite having held talks with the club on two previous occasions.
The Belgium midfielder, who has eight years of Premier League experience, became one of Manchester United’s summer signings after the club activated a relatively modest release clause in his contract.
Tielemans, speaking in his first interview since joining, said his focus had been on Aston Villa and Belgium’s World Cup campaign rather than a possible transfer.
“There has been two times that I spoke with the club, but it did not achieve anything so I was just very calm about it,” Tielemans said.
“It was mainly my agent that was dealing with it, I was more so focused on the World Cup which was a big thing for me. When it was time that it was accepted and acceptable, I would say then I was made aware.
“I was not expecting much [a summer move], to be fair. I was just focused on my football, focused on the World Cup, trying to perform as best as I could for my country. Then every summer something can happen.”
Tielemans joined Aston Villa as a free agent after Leicester were relegated to the Championship. A move to one of the traditional ‘top six’ clubs had not appeared close during his time at either side, making Manchester United’s approach particularly unexpected.
Asked whether he thought the chance to join a bigger club had passed him by, Tielemans said his time at Villa had strengthened rather than damaged his position.
“Not really, because I know that at Villa we did amazing things,” Tielemans explained.
“We achieved the Europa League win which was great for the club but there are still clubs above Aston Villa, and Manchester United is one of them.
“Especially at this moment, there is a very positive mood in and around the club so I am just hopeful that we can have a great story together.
“Aston Villa is a great club and I owe them the world. They have put me back at my best level so I am very thankful.”
Tielemans will also be reunited with Jonny Evans, who spent four and a half years alongside him at Leicester and is now part of Michael Carrick’s backroom staff at Manchester United.
The midfielder smiled when asked about working with his former team-mate again.
“Jonny has always been a main character,” Tielemans said. “He has always been trying to educate young players and he welcomed me at Leicester and now here.
“It is a bit weird to see him as a staff member to be honest, but it is going great and he knows me, he knows what I need and what I can bring to the team so it helps me as well.”
Tielemans also knows Marcus Rashford from the England forward’s six-month loan spell at Aston Villa during the second half of the 2024/25 season.
Rashford’s return to Manchester United has attracted considerable attention, but Tielemans said his former Villa team-mate made a strong impression both on and off the pitch.
“He was great. There had been so much talk about him and bringing pressure with the media around him, but I thought he was just so good.
“He was very humble, he was hard working and from the first training session, you could tell, his touch, his acceleration was amazing.
“That was just what we needed at the time at Villa as well so he did many good things and hopefully he can bring them here.”
Tielemans’ move followed an eventful summer with Belgium. He captained his country at the World Cup, where they were eliminated by eventual winners Spain in the quarter-finals.
He missed that match after suffering an injury during the warm-up, but said Manchester United supporters had no reason to worry about a continuing problem.
“It was just an overload of too many games, too many minutes and unfortunately my body could not cope with it anymore.
“We played 120 minutes against Senegal and from there, we had less time in between games. We played the USA three or four days later, then three days after that, we played against Spain. In the warm-up, my body switched off for some reason.”
Before being injured, Tielemans had played an important role in Belgium’s tournament, scoring twice in their dramatic 4-1 win over Senegal in the round of 32.
Their last-16 meeting with the USA was also marked by controversy after USA striker Folarin Balogun’s red card was suspended. Tielemans said Belgium were initially surprised by the decision, although it did not affect their approach once the match began.
“Originally we were surprised by the decision to revert the red card and his suspension,” Tielemans said.
“Now for us, it did not really change anything other than the preparation leading up to the game because it is a different type of player than the other player that was meant to play.
“Other than that, we were very calm and we just accepted our fate and tried to have a good game.”
