Revealed: The three wonderkids promoted to Man Utd's first team
Stuart Telford
- 8 Sept 2022 09:53 BST
- 3 min read
Manchester United have invited three academy stars to first team training ahead of their Europa League meeting with Real Sociedad on Thursday.
United have begun to turn things around under Erik ten Hag. After losing his first two games - against Brighton and Brentford - the Dutchman has overseen four consecutive wins, which have included the scalps of Liverpool and Arsenal.
Marcus Rashford has scored three goals in the last four games, while Scott McTominay has thus far kept Casemiro - an €80 million arrival from Real Madrid - out of the team. And it seems Ten Hag is set to benefit the next generation of academy graduates too.
"Three lucky youngsters from the Red Devils' famous academy trained with the senior squad on Wednesday," report the Daily Mirror. "Namely defender Tyler Fredricson, midfielder Kobbie Mainoo and striker Charlie McNeil."
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Who are these United youngsters?
Fredricson was the first signing of the Ten Hag era, the 17-year-old turning pro in May. A local boy, he is a centre-back who played every game on the way to the FA Youth Cup final last season before missing the showpiece - which United won - through illness.
With club captain Harry Maguire dropped to the bench in recent weeks, Eric Bailly loaned out to Marseille and Phil Jones not even given a dressing room locker, Fredricson has the chance to become Raphael Varane's and Lisandro Martinez's first understudy at the back.
Mainoo is a powerful midfielder still eligible for England and Ghana at international level who also went pro in May. He had a hand in three goals in six games in that FA Youth Cup run, and is a player comfortable on both sides of the ball.
With United losing Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic on free transfers to Juventus and Roma respectively this summer, they were keen to sign Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona and Juventus's Adrien Rabiot. Neither came, but Ten Hag will hope that doesn't matter with Mainoo's progress.
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Last but by no means least is McNeil, the young striker who returned from Manchester City's youth academy two years ago. He boasts more than 600 goals in youth football and took his tally to 43 strikes in 63 games with United in Saturday's 2-2 draw with Liverpool in Premier League 2.
With Marcus Rashford injured and Cristiano Ronaldo out of favour, his promotion is perhaps the least surprising of the three.
Ten Hag won five major honours at Ajax, where he consistently promoted youth players to the first team, and Fredricson, Mainoo and McNeil might become household names sooner rather than later.
