Manchester United enter the 2026-27 season with renewed confidence after last term\u2019s major recovery under Michael Carrick. His permanent appointment and a handful of summer signings have strengthened the squad, but the club may still find value closer to home. The academy remains a significant source of depth, and several young players will be hoping preseason can open the door to first-team opportunities.<\/p>\n
Ayden Heaven already made a strong impression last season, featuring 18 times for the senior side and starting three of the final six Premier League matches. The 19-year-old center back, recruited from Arsenal\u2019s academy, showed pace, physical strength and improving positional awareness. With Champions League football adding to the workload, he may be needed more often, especially with Harry Maguire now 33 and Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Mart\u00ednez both carrying injury concerns.<\/p>\n
At left back, Harry Amass could be next in line if no senior signing arrives. He made seven appearances in 2024-25, then spent time on loan before an injury cut short his spell at Norwich City. He has already scored against Rosenborg in preseason and could become Luke Shaw\u2019s deputy.<\/p>\n
Shea Lacey has also put himself in the conversation. The right winger made four first-team appearances last season and posted 12 goals and five assists in 19 outings for the U-21s. He may yet be kept around rather than sent out on loan.<\/p>\n
Chido Obi continues to attract attention after scoring 15 times for the U-21s last season and making eight senior appearances. Tyler Fletcher, the son of Darren Fletcher, has already had two brief Premier League cameos, while his twin Jack made three consecutive league appearances last December and produced six goals and eight assists for the U-21s.<\/p>\n
Jacob Devaney, after a productive loan with St Mirren, and JJ Gabriel, who turns 16 this October, complete a group that could yet force their way into Carrick\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United\u2019s academy offers Carrick several options for 2026-27, from Heaven to Gabriel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[1446,181,1871],"class_list":["post-18069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","tag-academy","tag-ayden-heaven","tag-tyler-fletcher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}