Modest Greenwood making all the right noises at United
In the fourth part of our series profiling the Premier League’s top young talents, James Ducker explains why Solskjaer is pinning high hopes on the teenage striker
May 9, Old Trafford, the night of Manchester United’s end-ofseason awards. After one of the most disappointing campaigns in recent memory, there was not an awful lot to celebrate, but there was one award that garnered a huge cheer and was most definitely something to shout about.
Mason Greenwood, fresh from scoring 30 goals in 29 games for United’s under-18, under-19 and under-21 sides and just three days away from becoming the club’s youngest player to start a Premier League match, had won the club’s coveted Jimmy Murphy Award. Ryan Giggs and Marcus Rashford are among the previous recipients of United’s academy player-of-theyear prize and Greenwood was full of pride as he posted a picture of himself with the iconic silver salver on Instagram.
What he was not expecting was for one of the first replies to come from Julia Roberts, the Hollywood actress, who introduced this quiet, unassuming 17-year-old striker to her 6.5 million followers with three clapping emojis. Roberts’s two boys, Phinnaeus, 14, and Henry, 12, are among Greenwood’s growing fan base but, even then, a message from the star of Pretty
Woman and Notting Hill required a double take.
What has happened since has brought Greenwood to an even wider audience, though. A first league start for United – in a 2-0 home loss to Cardiff City on the final day of the season – was the one ray of sunshine in a miserable campaign for the team and he has not looked back since.
United may yet bring in a replacement for Romelu Lukaku should he leave this summer but, if they do not, it will be in large part down to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s faith in Greenwood. The United manager has not ruled out starting him against Chelsea on Sunday.
Just as a teenaged Rashford seized the moment when opportunity first knocked for the England striker 3½ years ago, so Greenwood has made the most of Lukaku’s absence with a string of impressive performances in pre-season. The highlight was his goal against Inter Milan in Singapore, when he cut inside Joao Mario with his right foot, before arrowing a sublime finish with his left through a throng of players into the far corner.
United believe it is a long time since they have encountered such an instinctive finisher and a player so two-footed that you can wade through footage of him pinging home free-kicks with his left foot one moment and his right the next, ditto penalties and corners. Solskjaer’s calls him “51 per cent left-footed, 49 per cent right”.
They screen highlights from United’s academy matches in the first-team dressing room at Carrington, the club’s training base, so Greenwood’s name was being
talked about among senior players long before he pitched up to train with them.
Rashford and fellow academy graduate Jesse Lingard would wander across to watch him in action, likewise Michael Carrick, now one of the coaches tasked with guiding Greenwood’s considerable talent. His introduction to firstteam training is still talked about now. In one of his early sessions, Greenwood wowed staff by running several of United’s senior defenders ragged during a one-on-one session when, to quote one source, he was “scoring for fun, right and left foot”. But do not for a moment mistake Greenwood for some cocky upstart. When United’s squad went out for dinner on a night off in Perth on the first leg of their pre-season tour this summer, Greenwood stayed in, simply because he believes he has a lot to do before he can be considered a first-team player.
Rashford knows better than most what Greenwood is going through and Solskjaer and his staff have been encouraged by the responsibility Rashford, Lingard and Scott Mctominay are taking in ensuring that the teenager, and United’s other emerging academy products, Tahith Chong, Angel Gomes and James Garner, feel at home. Sometimes the advice is ensuring Greenwood and company are fully aware of a dress code or a team schedule and Rashford has been keen to avoid overly cluttering Greenwood’s mind. “He’s quite a laid back person so I think for him it’s no good putting things in his head constantly and repeatedly,” Rashford explained.
Greenwood bleeds United. A boyhood fan, there is a picture of him holding the European Cup after United’s triumph over Chelsea in Moscow in 2008 and he grew up idolising Wayne Rooney.
There are certainly parallels to the way United are trying to shield Greenwood from the media and other pressures, to Sir Alex Ferguson’s treatment of Giggs 30 years ago. Solskjaer has already talked publicly about that and it is a message reinforced by his staff. It was noticeable on tour how Greenwood was quickly whisked away from a room where media interviews were being done.
Not 18 until October, Greenwood is even largely off limits to MUTV, United’s official television station, for now.
It is a long time since United have encountered such an instinctive finisher
Raised in Wibsey, Bradford, to parents Andrew and Melanie, Greenwood played for local team Westwood Juniors as a five and six-year-old and was spotted by United at a tournament, after which he was invited to one of the club’s satellite development centres in Huddersfield. Mark Senior was one of Greenwood’s early coaches and recalls a lad who would turn up 20 minutes early for practice and, even at that age, had the shooting power with both feet of a boy five or six years his senior. And then there was his speed and skill. “He was absolutely rapid,” Senior recalls. “And as soon as you showed him a little trick or anything, he would just do it straight away.”
Andrew and Melanie have worked hard to keep their children humble and grounded. Greenwood’s dad still works as an engineer in Yorkshire, even though the family have relocated to Manchester. It has helped Greenwood that Kieran Mckenna, previously his coach with the under-18s, is now working with the first team. Mckenna has been an important figure in helping to smooth Greenwood’s transition and even now he takes him, and the likes of Chong, Gomes and Garner, aside before training, to talk them through the day’s sessions.
Help, advice and the right environment will only get Greenwood so far, though. The rest, of course, is down to him, but he is making all the right noises.
‘As soon as you showed him anything, he would just do it straight away’