“An absolute joke”: United legends urge starlet to abandon boyhood club for sake of career

Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo has struggled for game time this season. Struggle for minutes Mainoo has had to adapt to a significantly reduced role during Ruben Amorim’s time as manager at the club. The England international was an automatic starter for Erik ten Hag but has fallen down the pecking order at Old Trafford. Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro are very much Amorim’s first-choice midfield pairing, and Mainoo’s game time is not helped by the lack of European football this season for the Red Devils. Mainoo has played in 10 Premier League matches this season but has failed to earn a single start. Moreover, he has played just 183 minutes of action during that time. He also failed to get off the bench last Thursday against West Ham United at Old Trafford. Transfer links As a result, Mainoo has been heavily linked with a move away from the club this winter. The young midfielder is said to be interested in a loan move to SSC Napoli, where he would join up with former teammates Scott McTominay and Rasmus Hojlund. There have also been reports of other big European teams such as Chelsea and Bayern Munich taking an interest in the 21-year-old. Former stars urge Mainoo to leave Two former Manchester United academy graduates, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, have expressed their sympathy for Mainoo’s current situation. Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, Scholes argued, “Ruben Amorim has said Kobbie Mainoo is a starter… every appearance he’s made in the Premier League has been as a sub. Things like that wind me up. I wouldn’t mind if he was in a good team and they were winning every week and keeping possession but they’re rubbish.” He continued, “Kobbie is a 20-year-old kid and he’s not playing, he’s going to have to leave. Do you know what will happen now? Amorim will bring him into a game and he won’t be great but that’s because he needs regular games.” Scholes also theorised that Mainoo is outperforming Casemiro in training but is still not getting a look in. Butt wholeheartedly agreed and asserted, “the Kobbie one is an absolute joke. I went to the West Ham game [a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford] and it was an absolute s***show. It was a terrible, boring game. The player to bring on to change the game, in my opinion, was Kobbie Mainoo – but he didn’t get on the pitch. He’ll be another homegrown player who leaves and is a superstar somewhere else.” The former midfielder also claimed that were Mainoo playing for another Premier League team, United would be keen to snap him up for £70m or £80 million. Butt concluded, “he’s a top, top, top player that we are f****** up. Kobbie has got to go. If I’m looking after him I’m telling him ‘we’re getting you out of that football club’. The former Head of the Academy claimed that it would be “embarrassing” if he went to Chelsea but that he could certainly see Mainoo moving to Stamford Bridge in the near future. Featured image Shaun Botterill via Getty Images – The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social Alex Browne Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Alex has a Master’s degree from Queen’s University Belfast and La Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain. Having lived in the country since 2011, Alex is The Peoples Person’s Spanish football expert and is fluent in both Spanish and Catalan. He dreams of witnessing a United captain triumphantly hoisting the Premier League and Champions League trophy in the air once more.