It’s been a strange few years for Manchester United fans.
They’ve seen their club lift two domestic trophies but then perform so poorly in the league that Erik ten Hag was given the chop just a couple of months into this season.
However, following the announcement that Ruben Amorim is set to take the reigns at the end of this month, there is reason to be hopeful again for the United faithful.
With that said, while Ten Hag undoubtedly failed in his mission to take the club back to the top of the English game, he did get a few things right during his tenure, such as bringing through a contingent of promising youngsters who could become core members of Amorim’s next great United side, including one whose value has exploded in recent years.
Ten Hag's exciting youngsters
So, before we get to the youngster in question, let’s look at another of the other young talents Ten Hag helped to bed into the side during his time in Manchester, Kobbie Mainoo.
The English midfielder was given his senior debut by the Dutchman back in a January 2023 League Cup game against Charlton Athletic.
Still, it wasn’t until last season that he was finally given a run of games in the first team, and to say he took his opportunity would be a massive understatement.
The Stockport-born gem has now made 44 appearances for the Red Devils, in which he’s scored five goals and provided one assist.
He has even won ten senior caps for England and started every knockout round at the Euros this summer, including the final – talk about maturity beyond his years.
Appearances
44
10
Goals
5
0
Assists
1
0
Goal Involvements per Match
0.13
0.00
Overall, so long as he remains fit, there can be no doubt that a successful United side in the future includes Mainoo at the very heart of it. With that said, another young United star looks destined for a bright future at the Theatre of Dreams and is already worth a fortune.
The youngster worth a king's ransom
Now, if the youngster in question isn’t the incredible Mainoo, it can only be one other: Alejandro Garnacho.
The Argentine international may have been signed for a small fee of £420k under the management of Ole Gunnar Solskjær and given his debut under the watch of Ralf Rangnick in April 2022, but his development into the player he is today all happened under Ten Hag’s watch.
For example, while he made just two appearances, totalling 12 minutes during the 21/22 campaign, the Madrid-born dynamo ended up making 34 appearances, totalling 1205 minutes, the following season, in which he racked up five goals and five assists.
His importance to the team only grew last year, as he ended the season with 50 first-team appearances, ten goals and five assists to his name, despite being just 19 years old at the start.
As with the entire team, things have been a little more difficult for the former Atlético Madrid prospect this season, but even so, he has still racked up an impressive haul of seven goals and four assists in 18 appearances.
Appearances
2
34
50
18
Minutes
12′
1205′
3574′
1124′
Goals
0
5
10
7
Assists
0
5
5
4
Goal Involvements per Match
0.00
0.29
0.30
0.61
Minutes per Goal Involvement
N/A
120.5′
238.2′
102.1′
Unsurprisingly, such a rapid rise from unknown youth prospect to goalscoring “superstar”, as dubbed by BBC podcaster Gaz Drinkwater, has seen the seven-capped international’s valuations soar.
For example, the CIES Football Observatory now values him at up to €120m, which is about £99m, or a whopping 23471% increase on the fee he cost United four years ago.
Ultimately, while Ten Hag made plenty of blunders during his time in charge of United, playing and developing youngsters like Mainoo and Garnacho was not one of them, and while Amorim will have to correct some of the Dutchman’s mistakes, he should be thankful to have two outstanding young talents ready to go in his squad.
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