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Academy Briefing: Small-sided overseas tournaments
Tuesday 14 January 2025 13:42
One young Manchester United forward has secured a loan move away over the last week, while many of his team-mates were representing the club at small-sided tournaments in Germany. Here’s all you need to know in our regular Academy Briefing…
LOAN UPDATES
Congratulations to Ethan Ennis on securing the first loan move of his career. Ethan made his Doncaster Rovers debut as an 84th-minute substitute in a penalty shootout victory over Hull City in the Emirates FA Cup third round on Sunday.
Joe Hugill, meanwhile, has returned to Carrington after a positive stint with Wigan Athletic. The striker scored five goals for the League One side, and now has a total of 43 senior appearances to his name, with his experience at the Brick Community Stadium building on previous spells at Altrincham and Burton Albion.
Ethan Ennis in action during his Doncaster Rovers debut.
SMALL-SIDED TOURNAMENTS
Players from our Professional Development Phase (U17-U21) competed at two small-sided tournaments in Germany last weekend. United finished seventh in the Mercedes-Benz Junior Cup, having faced Bayern Munich, Borussia Monchengladbach, Rangers, Stuttgart, Servette and Sao Paolo. Meanwhile, a separate group participated in the Rewe Junior Cup, coming up against all of Fortuna Dusseldorf, Schalke, Heiligenstadt, Borussia Monchengladbach, JSV West Gottingen, SV Rhume-Oder, Hamburg and JFV Eichsfeld.
“Essentially, what you’re always trying to do with your programme is give the boys a range of experiences, and the diversity of the games,” explained Under-18s lead coach Adam Lawrence.
“These tournaments are fantastic occasions. They play a lot of football over the weekend in 5v5 and 6v6 formats with hundreds – sometimes thousands – of fans in attendance. It’s a really good weekend of high-level football; you get a lot of the top European clubs taking part in these tournaments. For us, it’s to stretch and challenge these players in terms of the opposition and the formats that they’re playing in as well.”
FIXTURE INFORMATION
The U21s’ game at Leeds United last Friday was postponed due to icy weather in Yorkshire. The Premier League 2 match will be rearranged, with this weekend’s upcoming home game against Aston Villa shifted to Saturday lunchtime at Carrington to facilitate the U18s’ FA Youth Cup meeting with Preston North End, which is being played on Friday evening at Leigh Sports Village.
WATCH THE YOUTH CUP ON MUTV
Friday’s 19:00 GMT kick-off in the FA Youth Cup fourth round will be shown live on MUTV.
Fans can order their tickets to attend here. Get yours now, here.
Check ManUtd.com and the United App for a full preview of our meeting with North End’s youngsters in the coming days.
MUTV INFO AT A GLANCE
Friday 17 January | UNITED U18s v Preston North End | 19:00 GMT | Live on MUTV (UK and Ireland only)
Saturday 18 January | UNITED U21s v Aston Villa | 13:30 GMT | Not live on MUTV (clash with Premier League fixture)
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Tuesday 14 January 2025 13:42
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