Valencia impresses in preseason, could be Man United's first-choice right-back

"You might not think it, but he's a proper joker among the Spanish speakers," said Ryan Giggs at the start of last season.

Antonio Valencia is no great linguist but stood there grinning. Having moved to England in 2006 to play for Wigan Athletic, while he'd still rather use his left foot in a game than do an interview in English after one, he knew what was being said. His daughter speaks perfect English, as does his wife.

Valencia himself speaks it far better than he ever lets on and, now, he's not only considered the joker among United's Spanish speakers, but the whole squad. Ask Marcus Rashford or Jesse Lingard who they most fear hiding their shoes or their socks and they'll say the Ecuadorian, who grew up in an Amazonian oil town by the Colombian border, where his father had gone to find work.

Valencia turns 31 on Thursday and has the confidence of a senior pro in a dressing room which has seen many changes in recent years but, for all his popularity among teammates, he'll be judged by what he does on the field. Mosty recently, on Saturday in Gothenburg, that involved setting up three of United's five goals against Galatasaray in a man-of-the-match display.

United's number 25 -- he requested a change from the more famous No. 7 two years ago -- prefers to play as an attacker because he thinks his best assets are beating players and crossing. Like many a wide man he can frustrate but, as Roy Keane has long argued, beating a man is the hardest thing to do in football.

Valencia's effectiveness appears to go with his form and there have been times when his crossing had caused as much concern as his injuries, yet he has the attributes to rank among the fine wing traditions of Manchester United.

He was an awkward fit for Louis van Gaal's United, with players not encouraged to take on opponents and try to beat them for pace. Now, under Jose Mourinho and with no obvious right-back in the current squad, the opportunity is there for Valencia to make the position his own.

The best teams in the world have ultra-attacking full-backs. Dani Alves was the best, a one-man right wing for Barcelona for eight years. Valencia still has his pace and, combined with experience and physical strength, two assets on which Mourinho is keen, is well placed to make an impact.

Valencia started in the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley, but had been missed at the same stadium a month earlier in the FA Cup semifinal defeat against Manchester City. This writer can't forget one angry fan, in London after that game, shouting: "We needed Valencia to marmalise them! Marmalise them!"

The following season, he was United's 2011-12 player of the year and scored a key late goal at Blackburn that looked like it was going to help secure another Premier League title -- before United imploded and were overtaken by City.

Four years later, Valencia is fit, free from injury and, with the confidence of his manager, stands a good chance of rediscovering his best form and earning a contract extension beyond June 2017. United have been linked to other right-backs but the position is not a priority.

Luke Shaw will be the first choice left-back, with Daley Blind likely to be used as back-up in that and several other positions. Marcos Rojo is for sale, while Guillermo Varela has left on loan for Eintracht Frankfurt and Matteo Darmian, who played in a more attacking, wing-back role for Italy at Euro 2016, could also go.

New signing Eric Bailly sees himself as a central defender but did play at full-back for Villarreal and Espanyol. Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, who prefers to play as a central defender, was one of those told face-to face by Mourinho last week that he could go on loan. Timothy Fosu-Mensah is currently injured.

Unlike Van Gaal who, at one point last season said "we are a club without full-backs" when Valencia was one of five -- six if you count Phil Jones -- injured in that position, Mourinho has options. Not that his judgment in that area is always right.

In his second spell at Chelsea, he sanctioned the signing of Baba Rahman for £14 million and also, for £15.8m, brought in Filipe Luis, a most consistent performer at Atletico Madrid but peripheral at Stamford Bridge before he returned to Spain after one season. Two Brazilian full-backs, Kennedy and Wallace, were other costly full-back recruits, who have failed to make a mark so far.

Valencia has played 248 times for United over seven seasons which is more than, among others, Ruud van Nistelrooy and David De Gea. From the current squad, only Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick have played more times than the man, who was brought to replace Cristiano Ronaldo but ended up covering for Gary Neville, the club's last great right-back.

Valencia has scored just 21 goals for United -- a modest return for a winger -- and did not find the net once last season, although injury meant he started only eight league games and made 22 total appearances. It was a long way from his first season, when he featured in 49 games overall, scoring seven goals.

He made his competitive United debut in the 2009 Community Shield against Chelsea and, if he is in the starting line up on Sunday against Leicester in this year's edition of the game, it's an indication that Mourinho has him in mind as his first-choice right-back. And after seeing how Valencia played in Gothenburg, who could blame the manager?

Andy Mitten is a freelance writer and the founder and editor of United We Stand. Follow him on Twitter @AndyMitten.