Aaron Wan-Bissaka has opened up about the challenges of being a Manchester United player after resurrecting his career at Old Trafford under Erik ten Hag last season.
He is in line for a new contract with talks set to begin over improving his current £100,000-a-week deal.
But it looked like he was on his way out of United last summer, three years after a £50million move from Crystal Palace, as the club considered selling the 25-year-old right-back following the arrival of Ten Hag.
On tour in Bangkok and Australia, Diogo Dalot and even young Ethan Laird started ahead of Wan-Bissaka who played four minutes of the third game of the season against Liverpool and then wasn’t seen for another four months.
He re-emerged on a mid-winter training camp in Spain and then played a key role in the second half of the season after winning back his place from Dalot.
Wan-Bissaka has spoken about his struggles adapting to Man United and being sidelined
Now he is in line for a new contract after a storming run of form since winning his place back
Reflecting on a difficult spell in his career, Wan-Bissaka admits he benefitted from Ten Hag’s guidance and was thankful for the support of family and friends.
‘It was a hard time and the only thing you can do during a hard time is keep working,’ he said. ‘I got my head down, gaining that hunger to fight for my position and wanting to play, wanting to impress the manager and help the team.
‘It’s quite hard to motivate yourself to train hard because you’d be telling yourself, “what am I training for when I’m not going to be playing?” But I just had the mindset, “I’ll train for myself, just to get the best out of myself”.
‘It can go both ways. You can just sit there and complain about it and not care, or you can actually try. I thought the best way was for me to try.
‘It’s obviously never good. But I just had to deal with it. I had support around me, my family, telling me every day, “Just keep working hard, have faith, your time will come”. So that helped me get through each day.
The full-back revived his United career in the second half of last season under Erik ten Hag
Moving from Crystal Palace in 2019 was not easy but he has come out of his shell recently
‘I always have that faith in myself to get myself out of situations like that. I had my head screwed on and I was ready to do what it takes.
‘Probably after January, I felt it I was in the right direction. I felt good about myself. I was happy. I just wanted to keep improving.’
Wan-Bissaka has grown away from the pitch as well. A South London boy, he spends less time in the capital these days and some of his friends have moved up to Manchester. He has his own fitness trainer and masseuse.
Wan-Bissaka is a father now and it has been noted at United that he has come out of his shell in recent months.
He admits that it took time to adapt to the magnitude of the club, and he has learned to keep a distance from social media having not posted on Twitter for 17 months.
‘Twitter can be a dark place, so I avoid it,’ Wan-Bissaka added. ‘I used to, but it’s easy now, I just don’t do it no matter how the performance is, good or bad.
‘When I was at Palace, I used to see players from other clubs, what they go through and what to expect. So when it happened it’s hard to deal with it, but you just block it out and focus on the main thing which is football.
‘It’s everything: all eyes are on you. It was just different to what I’m used to you, everything is more intense.
‘It can be hard, especially outside of football. You go for a meal or something with family, and fans are coming up wanting pictures and autographs. I don’t think they understand when is the right time to approach or not.
‘Some of it is difficult, but that’s what comes with the job. I don’t think there’s much you can do about it.’
Not posting on Twitter for 17 months has allowed him to move into a better headspace
