English Premier League - Player Profile: Tom Cleverley
Thomas William Cleverley currently plays for Manchester United and also plays for England’s U-21 national football team as well. Cleverley was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire but spent most of his youth in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He was a part of Bradford City’s youth squad when he was 15 years old but he soon joined United in the summer of 2005.
During the 2005-2006 season, Cleverley played nine times for the red devil’s under eighteen side. He also featured for United’s reserve team when he was named on the substitute’s bench for the teams, four one away win over Everton in the February, 2006. Tom’s debut for Manchester United’s reserve squad came almost a year later in their match against Bolton Wanderers on the 15th of February, 2007.
However at the end of the 2006-2007 season, Manchester United’s youth star suffered a horrific injury which ruled him out of action for around seven months. During the month of October in 2007, Cleverley made his comeback for the reserve squad in their one all home draw against English rivals Liverpool. Tom’s breakthrough season in terms of performances was the 2007-2008 season, which saw him, making 21 reserve team appearances. United’s reserve squad won the Manchester Senior Cup as well as the Lancashire Senior Cup, Cleverley scored in the latter’s final against Liverpool.
His performances gained more weight in 2008, as he scored two goals against Bolton on the 23rd of January in a Premier Reserve League match between the two North England clubs. Cleverley was soon made reserve team’s captain and he also earned a nomination for Denzil Haroon Reserve Player of the year award.
During the summer of 2008, Manchester United took Cleverley along with their first team to their pre-season tour of Nigeria. He made his debut for the senior team against Kaizer Chiefs in the final of the 2008 Vodacom Challenge when he came on in place of Rodrigo Possebon at half time. He also scored third of United’s four goals at the 60th minute mark.
On 16th of January, 2009 Thomas joined Leicester City on loan for the remainder of the 2008-2009 season, where he wore the number seven shirt but his loan spell with Leicester came to an premature end when he sustained a shoulder injury. He came to Old Trafford to get some treatment for his injured shoulder on 2nd of April, 2009.
After recovering from the shoulder injury, Cleverley was again sent on loan by Manchester United to Watford, where he performed quite admirably and extended his loan spell till the end of the season in 2010. Due to his brilliant displays for Watford in the Championship, Cleverley won the player of the season award for the club for the 2009-2010 season.
Currently Cleverley is part of United’s pre-season tour to Canada, Mexico and U.S.A. He has thus far scored two goals for United in their pre-season tour, first of the two came against Celtic when Manchester United played against them in Toronto, his second one came against MLS All-stars in a match which took place in Houston.
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