Manchester United\u2019s long-standing record of including an academy graduate in every matchday squad for the past 87 years has emerged as a complicating factor for Kobbie Mainoo\u2019s proposed January departure. Reports say Mainoo, frustrated by limited opportunities, is expected to push again for a move midway through the season, but his status as an academy graduate could work against a transfer, according to ESPN.<\/p>\n
Squad turnover over the summer reduced the pool of senior graduates available to Amorim. The sale of Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea, combined with loan exits for Marcus Rashford and Toby Collyer and Jonny Evans\u2019s retirement, leaves Mainoo as one of only two senior academy graduates in Amorim\u2019s squad. Third-choice goalkeeper Tom Heaton contributes to the tally and young defender Tyler Fredricson is an occasional feature in matchday squads, but options are thin.<\/p>\n
In the 2\u20130 win over Sunderland before the international break, Mainoo was the sole academy graduate named in the matchday squad. Allowing the midfielder to leave would place heightened scrutiny on Amorim if the 87-year run were to end. \u201cWe want to maintain it,\u201d Amorim said of the record recently. \u201cThe past of Manchester United is built on kids. I don\u2019t want to be the guy that breaks that.\u201d<\/p>\n
United are preparing for crunch talks with Mainoo about his future ahead of the January transfer window. Striker Joshua Zirkzee is also seeking clarification over his role after tumbling down the pecking order; he has managed just 82 minutes of playing time across all competitions this season.<\/p>\n
Both players are anxious about their international prospects ahead of next summer\u2019s World Cup, with neither earning a place during the current international window. There is reported interest from Serie A: Napoli have been linked with Mainoo and Zirkzee has been identified as a target for Juventus. Those external enquiries add urgency to the internal discussions the club must hold in the weeks before January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United’s 87-year academy streak complicates Mainoo’s exit and leaves Zirkzee seeking answers in Jan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,172],"tags":[227,1021],"class_list":["post-3707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-epl","tag-alejandro-garnacho","tag-amorim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707","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=3707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}