Angel’s planning his next move after exit

ANGEL Gomes is targeting a move abroad but does not have an immediate deal lined up following his release by United.

The 19-year-old is a free agent after rejecting the Reds’ contract offer and sources close to the England youth international have told M.E.N. Sport he is yet to settle on his next move.

Clubs in Spain, Germany, France and Portugal have expressed interest in Gomes after Chelsea coach Frank Lampard said he had ‘never been mentioned’ in his recruitment discussions.

United will be entitled to a hefty compensation fee for Gomes when he does join a new club. He became the fourth-youngest player in the club’s history, played in the Premier League, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Europa League, was a recipient of the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award and part of the England Under-17 World Cup-winning squad of 2017.

United believe they tabled a ‘good offer’ for Gomes, who joined the club’s academy at the age of six and was highly rated by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Whilst the Reds are understood to empathise with Gomes’s reservations over a lack of a pathway to the firstteam, they feel as though he became distracted over his future and that accounted for Gomes’s absence from matchday squads from late January onwards.

There was also a feeling that Gomes did not make the most of his first-team opportunities as opposed to Brandon Williams, who has started more games than Mason Greenwood this term.