Manchester United are considering loaning out at least six academy graduates this summer, with James Garner leading the queue.
From Sir Matt Busby‘s days to the post-Sir Alex Ferguson‘s era, Manchester United have seen the emergence of a plethora of talented prodigies from its very famous youth academy.
The likes of Marcus Rashford, Andreas Pereira, Jesse Lingard, and Paul Pogba – touted as the backbones of the current Manchester United team – are the making of the famed academy based at the club’s Aon Training Complex.
After the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United, as a club, have failed to make it to the pinnacle of European football. Moreover, over the last few years, they even found it hard to finish a Premier League season amongst the top four teams.
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Hence, the margin between the Red Devils and the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool have got big, and it would get bigger unless United take reasonable steps immediately.
While talking about United’s academy graduates, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in the 2019-20 season, has promoted several academy graduates to the club’s senior side. Some of them like Mason Greenwood and Brandon Williams have already got some hefty playing-time under their belts.
And it has been an exciting campaign for both graduates. While Greenwood has already played 648 minutes of Premier League football this season, his compatriot Williams has received 791 minutes in the Premier League thanks to Luke Shaw’s injury and Ashley Young winter exit.
The likes of Tahith Chong, Angel Gomes, and James Garner, who belong to the same group of players as of Greenwood and Williams, have got chances this season but have not been impressive for the Red Devils.
Tough, there are reasons for being optimistic as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has shown immense faith in them, and those, who have struggled to match the physicality of men’s game, will get more chances sooner than later to prove themselves.
According to a report via MEN, Manchester United are preparing to loan out six players from their ranks for the next season. Besides James Garner, the likes of Dylan Levitt, Ethan Laird and Ethan Galbraith are believed to be loaned out in order to give them some taste of the first-team football.
The report also believes that James Garner, 19, will move to a Championship side believed to be Swansea City on a temporary basis.
Speaking to MEN, United Under-23s boss Neil Wood heaped praise on the 19-year-old midfield maestro, saying,
"“Jimmy’s added goals to his game, he’s getting into forward positions a lot more and his goal-scoring record for the 23s has been really good this season.“But he also can be a defensive midfielder as well, he can break up the play, intercept and he reads the game very well.“So we want him to marry those two things together and that’s his challenge: to keep the attacking side and show that consistency and if he does that, he’ll be a very good player.”"
Aidan Barlow, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Ethan Hamilton, George Tanner and Kieran O’Hara are the latest batch of United’s Under-23 that have been enduring their loan-spells after making their move away from Old Trafford last summer.
Meanwhile, Wood confirmed that the club has not made any decision regarding the depature of the current batch. As per the report, a meeting between Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and head of first-team development Nicky Butt in the coming weeks will decide the graduates’ future.
Do you think James Garner could be the next Michael Carrick?