Manchester United\u2019s long-standing academy streak was at risk after Kobbie Mainoo was injured before the international break. With Mainoo unavailable for the matchday squad, the club faced the prospect of becoming the first United manager since 1937 to select a team without an academy graduate.<\/p>\n
Ruben Amorim avoided that outcome by giving an initial call-up this season to 18-year-old academy midfielder Jack Fletcher, the son of Darren. Fletcher, who was signed from Manchester City two years ago, was unused at Tottenham Hotspur but ensured the matchday group still included at least one player from the club\u2019s youth system. The choice prompted questions over the run\u2019s validity because Fletcher is not yet a first-team player and was clearly called up to maintain the record.<\/p>\n
United journalist Samuel Luckhurst reports club officials expect Kobbie Mainoo to be available when club football returns after the international break, reducing the immediate risk to the streak. That relief, however, comes amid a wider squad context that leaves Mainoo in a delicate position. He is unsettled and looking to leave on loan in January in search of regular minutes. Clubs from the Premier League and across Europe have expressed interest, and West Ham United have vowed to give the 20-year-old a significant role for the second half of the season. United have so far been reluctant to authorise his departure.<\/p>\n
Summer departures of Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho, and loan exits for academy players Harry Amass and Toby Collyer, have left Mainoo as the only natural option for Amorim to keep the streak alive. Tom Heaton remains the only other academy graduate in the current squad, but he is the third-choice goalkeeper and has not been included in a squad since Senne Lammens established himself between the sticks. Amorim has openly admitted that he will do whatever he can to avoid being the manager to end United\u2019s historic run. If Mainoo were allowed to leave, Amorim would be forced to rely on Heaton\u2019s inclusion or hand token appearances to academy prospects, neither of which is ideal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mainoo’s injury forced an 18-year-old call-up to preserve United’s academy run; club expect return..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,172,1163],"tags":[983,1041,1012],"class_list":["post-4472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-epl","category-transfers","tag-agents","tag-amorim-concerns","tag-burnley-style"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4472","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=4472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}