Loan preview - 21/22

By @UtdDanMUFC, published on 10/06/21

In recent years at Manchester United, the club has undergone a well-documented and much needed restructuring of its academy, bringing in new staff, creating new roles responsible for cementing the pathway through to the first team and also bringing back extensive academy recruitment to ensure the club has some of the best young talent like we have in the past.

As such, the amount of talent in the academy in the last couple of years has been progressively increasing. This abundance of talent has led to the club utilising the loan system more to ensure that players continue to be challenged in their development once they’ve outgrown academy football.

Next season, due to this fact, we could well see even more players sent out on loan; and as such this article will outline my thoughts on various players that could benefit from a loan, as well as potential clubs or leagues for them to potentially spend next season at.

A sensible starting point would be James Garner, the player who arguably had the most successful 20/21 season of all of our loan players. He played 2919 minutes in the Championship, starting 32 games. A highly successful season for him where he will have undoubtedly gained so much from the experience. So the question then becomes, what next for him? Does he spend another year in the Championship, step up to a loan in the Premier League, or even come back to United? Personally, having watched him play this past season a considerable amount, I believe that his current level is too good for another year in the Championship, and as such he needs to make a step up to the Premier League.

There is a relatively common argument among fans that you bring him back to United to become a squad player getting an increasing amount of minutes as he develops, but I don’t agree. I think he would benefit more from going to a Premier League club where he gets to play every week. Both Norwich and Brighton have a reported interest in him, and I feel that either of these would be very solid choices for him. Norwich in particular have an obvious gap given that Oliver Skipp, a midfielder they had on loan last season from Spurs, will be going back to his parent club next season.

If that loan then went to plan, I believe he’ll be much better placed to come back to United for the 22/23 season, rather than next season.

Conclusion: A Premier League loan–Brighton or Norwich leading candidates.

Ethan Laird was another player who also had a very successful loan, this one starting in January. He played 1904 minutes, a very good amount given he joined MK Dons mid-season, starting 23 of his 25 appearances. Crucially, as a player with past injury issues, he was able to stay fit during this loan and atone point started 16 consecutive games for them.

MK Dons are a team that utilise a 3/5 at the back formation, and as such he played as a right wing back for them, a position that evidently holds less defensive responsibility than playing as a conventional fullback. I believe he would benefit from another loan next season, this time at the higher level of the Championship, but crucially at a team that plays with a four at the back system so he gets to work on the defensive side of his game playing as a right back. If he does go on to make it at United in the future, he’ll be playing as a right back, so it’s logical for his next loan to be back in the position he played for our academy that he’ll be playing if he hopefully returns to the club in a future season.

As for specific teams in the Championship, one possible candidate for him to go to could be Nottingham Forest. United and Forest have seemingly developed a good relationship due to Garner’s excellent loan there, and crucially their right back of last season, Christie has gone back to his parent club Fulham, so there could be a spot for him there.

Conclusion: A Championship loan to a team playing a four at the back system, Forest one option

The plan for Teden Mengi’s next season, in my opinion should be fairly obvious. He was one of the youngest players we sent out on loan last season, going to Derby. He started a little slowly with some performances he wouldn’t have been happy with, as you’d expect from a young player playing senior football for the first time, but he grew into the loan and was doing well before injury ended his loan early. Rooney has made no secret of the fact he wants Mengi on loan for another season; and given they’ve avoided relegation, it makes perfect sense for him to stay at a club he’s already settled at, where he has a manager who believes in him.

Conclusion: Another year on loan at Derby

I believe the situation for Facundo Pellistri is essentially the same premise as with Mengi, just in a different league. He had a decent enough introduction to football in Europe with Alaves, perhaps most notably a promising display against Atletico Madrid, but it’s clear to see that he needs another loan to continue his development. Like Mengi he has a club in Alaves that he has the trust of the manager, who would like to have him at the club for another season. I think it would be very counterproductive to make him have to settle at a new club, he’s settled in at Alaves so I think another year there is the best thing for his development.

Conclusion: Another year at Alaves

Dylan Levitt’s situation is without doubt the one that has really gone awry out of the bunch. A terrible loan at Charlton where he didn’t get any real game time, followed by a frankly bizarre loan to Croatia has really set his development back from where it could have been with a productive season. The club need to find a way to get his development back on track, and for me that would be a loan back in English football again. The priority in his loan club has to be game time, everything else is secondary for him, and hopefully that regular football gets his development back on track.

Conclusion: A loan back in English football, probably the Championship

Di’Shon Bernard had a loan that wasn’t really discussed by a lot of United fans, myself included. He had a successful loan at Salford in League Two where he amassed around 2500 minutes for them. There’s nothing outlandish about my suggestion for his next loan, the next step for him would simply be to move up to League One and continue his development.

Conclusion: A loan to a League One team

Now we come to an academy player who will be new to senior football, Ethan Galbraith. Anyone who has watched Man Utd’s U23 team play this season will know how much of a class act he is. He has reached the stage where he has outgrown academy football; he’s clearly too good for that level, and needs to make the step up to senior football. A loan allows him to do that. I think he is good enough to go to a Championship club for his first taste of senior football. I think Galbraith would do well at a lot of Championship teams, but it’s worth noting that Forest would like Garner back for another year. If that doesn’t happen because Garner spends next season in the Premier League, Forest will need a replacement. Galbraith could be that player.

Conclusion: A Championship loan, potentially Forest if Garner moves up to the Premier League?

Anthony Elanga is for the most part new to senior football, having only made a couple of senior appearances at the end of this past season. He showed glimpses in those two matches of the quality we’ve seen consistently from him in the U23 level. Stylistically he reminds me of Rashford, if people aren’t familiar with the type of player he is. I don’t think it’s beyond the realms of possibility that Elanga could handle a Premier League loan next season, if we could find a club prepared to offer him that game time then that would be great, but it’s probably more likely that he gets a loan to a Championship team chasing promotion. Based on what I’ve read, Reading apparently need a winger; so they could be an option if the club decide the Championship is the way to go for him.

Conclusion: See if a Premier League loan is an option, and if not then a promotion chasing Championship team like Reading.

Tahith Chong is someone who’s loans this past season haven’t really worked out how we’d have liked. He simply hasn’t had enough game time. He only just amassed over 1000 minutes for the whole season, for reference remember that Laird had almost double the minutes despite his loan starting in January. There have been some reports talking about Club Brugge taking him on loan for another year, but I personally wouldn’t be a fan of that idea unless United get reassurances that he will play more next season. Failing that, get him a loan elsewhere.

Conclusion: No real preference of which club he goes to; we just need to get his development back on track by finding a club he’ll play every week