The second half of the Premier League is about to begin, and United have used a lot of Academy players in the first half of the game, with a total of 10 Academy players in the first-team squad this season, in fact, eight players have been given game time. Academy graduates Marcus Rashford, Garnacho and Scott McTominay are among the top six in the squad for their playing time, while the likes of Meno, Gore and Hannibal are also thought to be in the future.
Recall that TA once revealed that Ten Hag had hoped to build a squad structure dominated by academy players in the early days of his tenure at Manchester United. Manchester United face Nottingham Forest, the first game of the second half of the Premier League campaign, and Ten Hag has re-recruited a number of Academy players in pre-match training, including FA Youth Cup winner winger Mather and recent Manchester United Jackson Fletcher.
Manchester United have just beaten Derby County in this season's FA Cup at the Academy, and Jack Fletcher has been outstanding, with his youth team-mate Bianchery commenting on social **: "This guy is Cole Palmer in disguise, right?".Manchester United spent £1.5 million to sign brothers Jack Fletcher and Tyler Fletcher from Manchester City in the summer window, with Jack Fletcher more in attacking positions and Tyler Fletcher more in defensive positions, both of whom have been trained in the Manchester City academy for nine years, and they are just 16 years old this year.
Fresh from his time at Manchester United, Jack Fletcher has become a regular in Manchester United's academy, playing in the Under-18 league, the FA Youth Cup, the Champions League and youth competitions, and has been named in the first-team training squad on a number of occasions.
Among the members of Manchester United's 2022 FA Youth Cup triumph, Meno and Al Gore have been included in the first-team squad and have had a number of games this season, Garnacho has become a regular mainstay, captain Bennett has also been selected for the first team squad and participated in first-team training on several occasions, and McNeil has also been loaned out. However, Sam Mather, another outstanding performer in the FA Youth Cup that year, has been plagued by injuries, starting all six games in that year's FA Youth Cup, scoring three goals and providing two assists.
Now, Sam Mather has not only returned from injury, but is also training with the first team. Sammather can play as a left and right winger, and he is a bit more versatile. However, with the likes of Marcus Rashford, Garnacho, Pellistri, Amad Diallo and Antony standing in front of him, he will need patience to get a chance in the first team.
In this year's pre-season, Folsen was named to the first team and got a lot of game time. Ten Hag is said to be very impressed with his contract expiring this season, with the Manchester Evening News saying that United are preparing to renew Folsen's contract, and that he has not yet made his first-team debut, and that Folsen can play as a left and right winger, and it will still be difficult for him to break into the first team.
Fabrizio Romano has reported that Hannibal will not be called in for the Tunisian squad for the Africa Cup of Nations due to a loan out in January and a total of three clubs are interested in Hannibal. Hannibal is now at the age of rising football and he is in desperate need of professional football, while at Manchester United he has a place where Mason Mount has returned from injury and has a relatively similar style.
Hannibal is a signing that sparked the signal of Manchester United's youth recovery, he joined Manchester United in 2019 for a transfer fee of 10 million euros, and since then Manchester United's youth academy has begun to network various talents from mainland Europe and England, and Rooney's boss Kai and Fletcher twin brothers have also returned to Manchester United one after another.
Neither of them is technically a Academy player, they were 19 years old when they joined the club, and Diallo joined the Reds as a first-team player. However, their future this season is in doubt, and they are struggling to get game time in the first team, and Romano's assessment is that everything depends on Sancho's situation before deciding, so there is a high probability that one of them will remain