The Manchester United Thread

Manchester United have invited 15 boys of various ages under 16 for trials ahead of potentially signing them up at no cost. Four were due to play in a behind-closed-doors friendly for the Under 14s on Monday night.

Rocco Fragapane and Raj Mahmood both earned England Under 16 call-ups but are now free to decide where to go next, with United inviting them in for a closer look. Harvey Rowe and Sam Murray are in at Carrington too and also being pursued by City, Liverpool and Everton.
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Huddersfield closing their academy so United swooping in!
 
Theatre of dreams said:
Yeah just read that. But apparently they are losing a lot of there top young players in the process.
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'Top young players' is a slight misnomer as one of their biggest issues is being in a bad catchment area to start with. There's a lot of the best Huddersfield/ Kirklees kids at Leeds, Manchester etc already as they can offer more incentives Town just can't compete with. Huddersfield's problem is purely financial. Costing them £20 grand or so a week to run the Academy at all levels and they've not had one prospect come through they could even sell to sustain that outside of a £1.5 million sales a few years back.

Sure it wasn't taken lightly but it makes much more financial sense for them to change their academy status to just focus on the U'18's and 23's. Shame for anyone upto 16 currently having to be let go but hopefully for them they impress enough elsewhere to be taken on.
 
Scouseinthehouse said:
'Top young players' is a slight misnomer as one of their biggest issues is being in a bad catchment area to start with. There's a lot of the best Huddersfield/ Kirklees kids at Leeds, Manchester etc already as they can offer more incentives Town just can't compete with. Huddersfield's problem is purely financial. Costing them £20 grand or so a week to run the Academy at all levels and they've not had one prospect come through they could even sell to sustain that outside of a £1.5 million sales a few years back.

Sure it wasn't taken lightly but it makes much more financial sense for them to change their academy status to just focus on the U'18's and 23's. Shame for anyone upto 16 currently having to be let go but hopefully for them they impress enough elsewhere to be taken on.
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Yeah shame! Just been speaking to a lad who follows our youth at a younger level than me, that we've already beaten City to 3 u12s from Huddlesfield academy.
 
Not sure if this stat I read ahead of tonight's tie is true, but if it is, it's bonkers; Jose is the only manager out of all of the current 92 football league managers to have won a league cup.

Jose 4-0 91 other managers.
 
RhQQ said:
Not sure if this stat I read ahead of tonight's tie is true, but if it is, it's bonkers; Jose is the only manager out of all of the current 92 football league managers to have won a league cup.

Jose 4-0 91 other managers.
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Read a BBC tweet saying the same the other day.
 
Lukaku 14 goals off equaling Drogba's entire PL tally is pretty darn impressive at 24 years old, with nearly 70 games less played. Have to consider Drogba came in his prime years too, a chunk of Lukaku's games were as a young learner at West Brom etc.
 
Can't believe wenger has never won it

although it does make sense Jose is the only one as he takes it far more seriously than any other manager of the top teams
 
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ninjaskill said:
Can't believe wenger has never won it

although it does make sense Jose is the only one as he takes it far more seriously than any other manager of the top teams
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That was the first thing I checked, Arsenal's record in it. 25 years ago since they last won it. After Wenger was ruled out, the stat sounded a lot more legit.

Mightn't have been a legit stat a week ago though, before 'Arry got the run from Birmingham? He may have won it before? I recall Spurs winning it, could've been under AVB though
 
RhQQ said:
That was the first thing I checked, Arsenal's record in it. 25 years ago since they last won it. After Wenger was ruled out, the stat sounded a lot more legit.

Mightn't have been a legit stat a week ago though, before 'Arry got the run from Birmingham? He may have won it before? I recall Spurs winning it, could've been under AVB though
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He did I'm pretty sure, the only other I could think of who won it recently were Laudraup with Swansea, Pellegrini with City Daglish with Liverpool and SAF with us. Also whoever won it with Birmingham, McCleish maybe
 
Laudrup, forgot him for a while. Was low key one of the worst sackings in recent years.
 
RhQQ said:
Laudrup, forgot him for a while. Was low key one of the worst sackings in recent years.
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Nah. He was lowkey awful behind the scenes for Swansea. From not training if it was raining to his agent being involved in dodgy deals. Laudrup could give fat scam a run for his money.
 
I can't respond to that type of speculation, but on the evidence of what I saw, he was in a tricky patch of form like all times go through, but given the successful season prior to that (silverware and top 10 finish), I felt they should've gave him a little more time. He had knocked us out of the FA Cup a few weeks before getting his marching orders, and it's not as if results drastically picked up after his departure that you could say "you know what, spot on decision" like it could've been argued with Hull and Phelan/Silva. Was livid at Phelan getting pushed out, but in hindsight, it was probably the right decision and Silva done wonders; brought a new lease of life there. Not sure if I could say the same about Swansea/Laudrup - and they haven't progressed as a club since.

But hey, 50 years ago now.
 
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dilakh2 said:
Nah. He was lowkey awful behind the scenes for Swansea. From not training if it was raining to his agent being involved in dodgy deals. Laudrup could give fat scam a run for his money.
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Seems to be routine for PL clubs these days to perform character assassination on departing manager, so **** knows if there's any true to these stories.
 
Axel Tuanzebe is set to miss Manchester United's Carabao Cup tie with Burton Albion and Reds manager Jose Mourinho has revealed four players have been rested ahead of Wednesday's clash at Old Trafford.

Promising teenager Tuanzebe is out with a back problem, while David De Gea, Antonio Valencia, Eric Bailly and Nemanja Maticwill be handed a night off.

"I gave two days off only to four players," revealed the boss. "Apart from that, everybody is selected. Do you want to know which four? De Gea, Valencia, Matic and Bailly."

When asked if he is taking the competition, which the Reds won last season with a 3-2 triumph over Southampton at Wembley, seriously, he replied: "Oh, yes. Serious. Because it's football, it's competition. We take it seriously.

"Of course, we're not playing David or Bailly but, if we go to the next round, probably these guys will play and I will give a rest to others. Our squad is good.

"We don't have 30 players, we have what we have, and a couple of injuries right now with Paul Pogba and Axel Tuanzebe. So we need some of the players that played on Sunday to play and we need some to be on the bench.

"We need to be with a strong team. I know the quality of the Championship and I know, if we don't take the game seriously, we are going to lose."

Tuanzebe, meanwhile, is hoping the injury does not keep him out for too long as he bids to impress the manager over the course of the campaign.

"I've been struggling with my back, but the rehab's going well and, behind the scenes, everyone is doing a good job," he told ManUtd.com.
 
Judging by Pogbas 2 instagram posts today. I seriously doubt he will be out for any length of time. Dancing, Running, Sliding across the changing room floor. Scan must of been good news :)
 
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