The transfer market is always an exciting period for any football club.
‘Who will we buy?’, ‘Who will we sell?’, ‘Who will I pick for my FPL team?’.
And around and around, we go.
Though there’s always that added element of uncertainty whenever you look to bring someone into the team. Particularly around whether they’ll get on with incumbent members of the squad, and if its balance respects the talents they aim to bring.
I explored this in a previous article for Stretford Paddock, where we look at three potential ready-made alternatives to this persisting Frenkie De Jong saga.
Today, I thought we’d focus on a player already accustomed to the rigmarole of working through the United ranks and who deserves a first team development plan for this season and beyond.
The bright, tricky and exciting Argentinian winger, Alejandro Garnacho.
For a club like United, embedding youth prospects isn’t a new idea.
In fact, through the times spanning Sir Matt and Sir Alex, this focus on integrating academy players into the first team has formed the bedrock of every great United team. From the ‘66 European Champions to that Class of ‘92, it’s an un-broke system which deserves reviving under a manager as inclusive as Erik Ten Hag.
Ex-Ajax prodigy Ryan Gravenberch (now at FC Bayern Munich) remembers how his older coach afforded him the opportunity to shine when they worked together in Amsterdam:
“He especially taught me to keep calm. When I just got to the first team, I really wanted to make minutes, but he said ‘That will come. First become reliable in Jong (Ajax’s youth team). Then you start making minutes’. In the end, that’s how it went.”
Using this as an example, Garnacho’s youth team stats make for joyous reading.
After impressing for Atletico Madrid’s setup – forcing his way into the U19 squad at the age of 15 – United won the race for the nippy winger’s signature, whereupon he scored seven goals and assisted a further four for our U18’s in a disrupted 2020/21 campaign.
Then, last season – one all United fans would like to forget, I’m sure – he finished as our top academy goalscorer with fifteen goals and six assists at various ages in thirty-two games.
He wasn’t bad in the Youth FA Cup side, either. And was electric in pre-season.
So, what’s next?
Well, now our eyes point to Erik Ten Hag. Who’s faced a tough-ish transfer window full of recruitment sagas and very little resolve until the very end, with not as much depth formed in the squad as he would have requested at the start of the summer.
With a congested fixture list sandwiched around the Qatar World Cup, one would assume that a number of our players will share the appearance burden throughout the tournaments to preserve his favoured lineup for the key games.
But in my opinion, we need to make sure we don’t rush into this one with Garnacho.
Last year, we saw the breakthrough campaign for Anthony Elanga, which has been met with mixed reviews from the United fanbase so far.
Personally, though I like him as a young man and feel he has the character and a number of attributes to be a good squad player for Manchester United, I feel his integration into the first team under Ralf Ragnick in particular was premature, desperate and hasn’t worked out as we would have liked.
He was made to run before he could work.
In hindsight, he had more of an impact in Premier League 2 than he had in more than three times as many opportunities in the senior division, and was unfairly made into one of a number of scapegoats ill-equipped to cope with the expectations of the club.
If we’re going to hope for something more from Garnacho, then we need to make sure that his involvement is staggered, thoughtful and conducive to his long-term development.
Historically, this is usually done under the tutelage of a senior player in their position.
A number of Instagram comments earlier in pre-season assumed that role for Cristiano Ronaldo, but it’s looking very unlikely that he will claw his way back into first team contention having thrown his toys out the pram during that win against Spurs.
That leaves a spot which would most likely be filled by Antony – a young player by all accounts who might not yet have the experience to ‘inspire’ a player like Garnacho.
It really will all come down to the management of Erik Ten Hag.
With our schedule, lack of squad depth and struggles in front of goal this season, a call for a direct influence from the wing is a loud one. A 0-0 draw at home to Newcastle and a last-gasp draw away at Chelsea will only help to amplify those cries, as we were made to rue our lack of clinical finishing in a duo of games that would have lifted us into 4th place.
With Ten Hag showing little aversion to making game-altering substitutions with a good amount of time remaining on the clock, I think Alejandro Garnacho’s time is best spent in the last 25/30 minutes of a game requiring some electricity from the left flank.
Either for an unconfident Sancho or unlucky Rashford, he ought to be used in conjunction with Elanga to inject some unexpected pace to up our levels for the ninety.
And with his improved form in front of goal for the developmental teams, I argue that Garnacho should take precedence over Elanga for the games until the World Cup.
If he leaves on loan in January, we ride at dawn…
How do you think Erik Ten Hag should best manage the situation with Alejandro Garnacho?