Phil Jones ‘surprised’ at Man Utd transfer call on €50m star who’s now ‘very complete’ at Real Madrid

Phil Jones has admitted that he could not believe it when Manchester United decided to sell Alvaro Carreras, who is now flourishing at Real Madrid, with the former Red Devils defender also sharing his admiration for another youngster who left Ruben Amorim’s side.

Carreras left Real Madrid for Man Utd in 2020 as a teenager and did well for the Red Devils’ youth teams. However, then Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag did not think that he was ready for the senior side, with the left-back subsequently having successful loan spells at Preston North End, Granada and Benfica, before joining the Portuguese club on a permanent basis in the summer of 2024 for €6million (£5.2m, $7m).

Man Utd inserted a 15 per cent sell-on clause, along with a buy-back option, into the deal, but the Premier League club decided not to bring him back to Old Trafford in the summer of 2025 when Real Madrid stepped up their pursuit of the Spaniard.

Real Madrid signed Carreras from Benfica for €50m (£43m, $58.3m) in the summer of 2025, and the left-back has since gone on to establish himself as one of the first names in the starting line-up.

The 22-year-old has made 15 starts in LaLiga and five starts in the Champions League for Madrid so far this season, with manager Alonso describing the former Man Utd youngster as a “very complete” player who “makes very few mistakes”, is “very focused” and has “great mental quality”, as quoted in Goal in September 2023.

Former Man Utd defender Phil Jones worked with Carreras, and he believes that the Red Devils made a mistake in selling him.

Jones said on Sports Illustrated when asked if he worked with Carreras at Man Utd: “Yeah, Incredible. Incredible player. Incredible player,”

“I didn’t think he’d get to that level. Don’t forget he went out on loan to Preston and wasn’t playing that regularly at Preston. He was brilliant.

“And the reason that people would look at him and go ‘maybe not for us’ is because he probably lacked pace.

“And as a left back, he’s tall. He’s got like sort of a really lanky way of running. But I thought he was brilliant. I thought technically he was brilliant. He kept the ball. He never gave the ball away.

“He was one that surprised me why United let him go.”

Another player who is flourishing away from Man Utd is Rasmus Hojlund.

During his time at Man Utd, Hojlund scored just 26 goals and gave only six assists in 95 appearances.

The 22-year-old striker was expected to be the next big thing at Man Utd when he joined from Atalanta in 2023.

Hojlund moved to Napoli on a loan deal in the summer of 2025, with the Serie A club having the obligation to make it permanent for £38million (€43.4m, $51m) ‘if certain conditions are met, including the Italian giants qualifying for the Champions League’, according to BBC Sport .

The youngster has done relatively well for Napoli so far this season, scoring six goals and providing two assists in 17 appearances for Antonio Conte’s side.

Jones said about Hojlund: “Credit to him (McTominay) and Hojlund as well.

“I think he’s gone there after a difficult period at United.

“He could have easily gone to Napoli and been sort of the same sort of way (that) was happening at United and felt sorry for himself.

“He’s not. He’s gone there, you know, he’s dug his heels in the sand and said, ‘This is the player I am. This is the player that I am’. So, credit to them both.”