Man Utd's pacey goal machine, 'next Wayne Rooney' and quartet who can save club millions
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By the looks of things, it's going to be one heck of a long road back to the summit of English football for Manchester United. The Red Devils slumped to their 10th Premier League defeat of the season on Sunday, a result that not only left them 13th in the table but also caused manager Ruben Amorim to blow a gasket in the dressing room. Performances have been drab and underwhelming, much like the club's recent record in the transfer market.
It stands to reason, therefore, that United should start looking inwards, rather than outwards, for solutions. And why not? They've got some talented youngsters waiting in the wings. Here, Mirror Football runs through the best of them, from 'the next Wayne Rooney' to a lightning-fast goal machine promising to take senior football by storm, plus a quartet of other starlets Amorim has invited to training recently.
Few United youngsters stand a chance of emulating the legendary Wayne Rooney, but if anyone's capable of doing it, it's Amir Ibragimov. The Russia-born England U16s star joined the club from Sheffield United in 2022 and immediately began turning heads, both in terms of aptitude and attitude.
He captained United's U14s and U15s teams as he progressed through the academy. In a match against Tottenham's U15s, Ibragimov won a penalty after dribbling into the Spurs penalty area. However, as he did not believe he was fouled, he passed the penalty, resulting into the goalkeeper's hands, a gesture that garnered national attention.
Since then, he's made sporadic appearances for the U18s and was even called up to train with the senior team aged just 15. In January 2024, he started for United's first team in a behind-closed-doors friendly match against Burnley, playing as a left winger.
