UNITED Red rookies ready to stake claim on tour with United
MASON Greenwood is set to be included among the United rookies in Jose Mourinho’s pre-season tour squad, which flies out later this week.
M.E.N. Sport understands 16-year-old Greenwood and academy midfielder James Garner, 17, did not travel with the reserves and academy to their training camp in Austria and will train with the first team this week.
Tahith Chong, 18, and Angel Gomes, 17, have also stayed at Carrington and could make the squad for the five-match tour.
RoShaun Williams, who was named on the first-team bench by Louis van Gaal for cup ties against West Ham and Liverpool in March 2016, has stayed in Manchester, as has Ethan Hamilton, who was promoted to the first-team bench at Huddersfield in February.
Hamilton, 19, was out of contract in June but is thought to have signed an extension.
Garner’s father, Dave, confirmed his son’s inclusion on Twitter last week and Mourinho’s decision to reward some of the most talented youngsters in their age group will doubtless delight supporters.
Their ascension could also be partly influenced by new first-team coach Kieran McKenna, who nurtured Garner, Greenwood, Gomes and Chong during his 18-month stint as Under-18 coach.
Greenwood’s selection is mainly enforced by Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford’s World Cup commitments, while Anthony Martial’s agent said the striker wants to leave last month.
The prolific Greenwood scored 17 goals in 17 starts for the Under-18s last year. Zak Dearnley and Tyrell Warren also have outside chances of travelling on tour.
Chong recovered superbly from a knee injury to claim the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award last term, while Gomes became the fourth youngest United player – aged 16 years and 263 days – when he played against Crystal Palace 14 months ago.
United’s first-team squad is currently 30-strong but 12 players were named in their nations’ World Cup squads.
Nemanja Matic was the only international who failed to progress beyond the group stage in Russia and Reds manager Mourinho said ahead of the tournament he hoped Serbia would be eliminated early so the midfielder could go on holiday.
Andreas Pereira and Timothy FosuMensah have returned from season-long loans with Valencia and Crystal Palace, while new signings Diogo Dalot and Lee Grant are set to fly across the Atlantic for the pre-season tour.
United travel to Los Angeles on Sunday and are due to train at the UCLA campus on Monday.
Their first tour match is against Club America in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 19.