Ruben Amorim promoted 16-year-old Goodwill Kukonki to first-team training in his first session as Manchester United manager, while a report suggests a fellow academy star is ‘expected to be fast-tracked’ under the Portuguese boss.

Amorim was announced as Erik ten Hag’s permanent successor at Old Trafford on November 1 but remained in charge of Sporting ahead of the international break and will be in the dugout for his first Red Devils game against Ipswich on Sunday.

Monday was Amorim’s first opportunity to see some of the players he will be working with, while others will return to training over the next week as they return from international duty.

Speculation is rife as to which United players will be boosted by Amorim’s arrival and the likely switch to a 3-4-3 formation, but Kukonki wasn’t one of those talked about as even a potential beneficiary.

The teenage centre-back, who towers over the rest of the squad at 6ft 5ins tall, has been tipped for a bright future at United and was welcomed to first-team training for the first time by Amorim.

The left-footed defender is a regular starter of the Under-18s team, and while it’s not clear whether he will remain with the group when the rest of the senior squad returns, it’s a move that adds weight to the view that Amorim will look to bring young players through from the academy, as he did with great success at Sporting.

And a GIVEMESPORT report claims ‘Amorim is expected to fast-track the development of Chido Obi-Martin after being given rave reviews of the 16-year-old striker by Manchester United youth coaches’.

United poached Obi-Martin from Arsenal in the summer after he scored 32 goals in just 18 Under-18 games for the Gunners, and he’s managed four in four since the move to the United academy.

The report adds:

‘Technical director Jason Wilcox, academy head Nick Cox and coach Darren Fletcher are all believed to have spoken with Amorim about Obi-Martin.

‘And they plan to integrate the teenager into some Under-21 games as well as some first-team training sessions to prepare him for the senior team.’

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The drive to improve the pathway for academy players into the first team may well be driven by a lack of funds for transfers.

A Daily Telegraph report claims that Amorim will ‘operate on a more modest budget’ than Ten Hag as the Portuguese coach will be tasked with ‘maximising the untapped potential in the squad as the club aim to end the damaging and costly cycle of mass overhauls’.

The report states:

‘The new United hierarchy have no plans under Amorim to rip up a squad they feel is capable of delivering far more and are determined to move away from a culture of persistent upheaval they believe to be financially unsustainable and destructive to coherent squad building.

‘Denmark striker Rasmus Hojlund and England midfielder Mason Mount are cited as just two examples of players United are hoping can thrive in a new environment under the charismatic Portuguese, who will take charge of his first game as the club’s new head coach away to Ipswich Town on Sunday.

Not all that long now until the January transfer window and we reckon these five players face losing their spots to new recruits if they don’t buck their ideas up over the winter to prove themselves worthy to their managers.

Kostas Tsimikas (Liverpool)
The Greece international has somehow now been at Liverpool for over four seasons, making 97 appearances as understudy to Andy ‘the pr*ck’ Robertson. Just at the point where Tsimikas might have thought the long game had paid off as the balance of left-back power shifts in his favour, Liverpool are now being heavily linked with a move for Fulham’s Antonee Robinson in January, with Tsimikas forever the bridesmaid at Anfield.

There’s no doubt Arne Slot will want to sign a new left-back in the not-too-distant future, and Robinson for Robertson makes a lot of sense. What’s not clear is whether Slot and his recruitment team will deem it necessary to make that move in January as they push for the title.

Tsimikas has been a perfectly acceptable if unglamorous presence on the left, and while anyone would compare unfavourably with Trent Alexander-Arnold on the opposite side, the 28-year-old may have to prove he can be more than a Never Let Them Down footballer to keep the Reds from eyeing his position as one where significant gains can be made in January through dipping into the transfer market.

Rasmus Hojlund (Manchester United)
Two goals in 15 appearances this season for club and country – even considering the caveats granted for his age, inexperience and other contributions to his teams – is a p*ss-poor record for a £64m striker; the sort of return that serves to increase both the quantity and reach of stories linking Viktor Gyokeres or other high-level strikers to Old Trafford.

Manchester United scoring 12 goals in 11 games is wholly unacceptable and it’s less chance creation than converting those chances that’s the issue Ruben Amorim will be looking to remedy as one of his top priorities.

Reports suggesting he will look to use Marcus Rashford as his central striker hint at a lack of confidence in Hojlund, with Amorim apparently preferring something of a square peg in a round hole to someone who has all the attributes to be United’s version of Gyokeres.

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Robert Sanchez (Chelsea)
It’s incredible that of Chelsea’s eight goalkeepers, Robert Sanchez is considered the best. The coaching staff aren’t necessarily wrong to think so either. It’s not like we’re looking at any of Djordje Petrovic, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Marcus Bettinelli, Lucas Bergstrom, Eddie Beach, Mike Penders or Filip Jorgensen and thinking they’re much better equipped to be the goalkeeper of a side chasing Champions League football.

Enzo Maresca is apparently convinced Sanchez will grow into the role and has great trust in his ability with the ball at his feet. We’re not quite sure why as it feels as though Sanchez passes the ball to an opposition player at least once a game, and for every clipped pass to one of his full-backs – which, in fairness, he is pretty good at – there’s a foolhardy attempt to force an eye-of-the-needle pass into a midfielder.

It always feels as though if any Chelsea player is going to screw up, it’s Sanchez, who wouldn’t come close to usurping the goalkeeper at any of the other Big Six clubs and therefore probably shouldn’t be Chelsea’s No.1.

Thomas Partey (Arsenal)
We really thought Arsenal would have moved on from Thomas Partey by now. He’s been fine this season, good even, but it’s hard to watch what have been a number of laboured displays from Mikel Arteta’s side and not think they could really do with a more technically gifted and progressive player at the base of their midfield.

Mikel Merino may move into that deeper role as a result of Martin Odegaard’s return, but as is the case with Declan Rice, playing him there would limit the Spain international to the extent where the Gunners wouldn’t be reaping the rewards of his quality on the front foot.

Martin Zubimendi looks a good option for Arsenal in January, as a player similar to Jorginho who can control the pace of the game and sweep up in front of the defence. But that does make you wonder why Edu and Arteta went after Merino over his better-suited midfield partner at Real Sociedad in the first place.

Leon Bailey (Aston Villa)
Both Villa and Bailey need a bit of a kick up the backside. It’s all gone a bit stale for the winger and the team as a whole of late, and with no goals and just three assists in 15 appearances this season from the Jamaican – who often looks as though he takes no joy whatsoever in playing for Villa – Unai Emery and Monchi may well decide the boost Villa require to push on in the Champions League and remain in the mix for the top four in the Premier League isn’t going to come from the winger.

Morgan Rogers has been excellent and in Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran there’s no shortage of options in the middle, but amid Bailey’s poor form it feels as though Villa are light across that front line and something of an exciting, marquee addition in January wouldn’t go amiss.

Man Utd and Paris Saint-Germain have made huge offers to sign Ademola Lookman from Serie A side Atalanta, according to reports.

The Red Devils made five signings in the summer transfer window as they looked to give Erik ten Hag their full support after deciding to keep him on over the summer.

Joshua Zirkzee, Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs de Ligt, Leny Yoro and Noussair Mazraoui all joined before the end of the summer market but they have yet to have the impact the Man Utd hierarchy and fans were hoping.

Ten Hag was sacked after winning just three of the Red Devils’ opening nine Premier League matches with Ruben Amorim replacing him a week ago.

Man Utd are currently 13th in the Premier League table after interim boss Ruud van Nistelrooy added another four points to their Premier League total before leaving the club earlier this week.

Amorim will play a different formation to Ten Hag at Man Utd and there are concerns that he won’t have the players required to play that system straight away.

That could see the Red Devils enter the transfer market to try and give Amorim the tools to get Man Utd challenging for Premier League titles in the long term but up the table in the short term.

There have been reports that the Premier League club are interested in Bayern Munich winger Leroy Sane but now there are claims in Spain that they have launched a bid for Atalanta’s Lookman.

It is understood that both Man Utd and PSG ‘have submitted offers close to 100 million euros (£84m) for the Nigerian winger, who has become one of the sensations of Serie A with Atalanta’.

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Lookman ‘would fit perfectly into the plans’ of new boss Amorim with his ‘versatility and ability to create danger in the opposition’s box make him a highly desirable addition’.

In a boost to Man Utd and PSG, Atalanta are ‘looking favourably on the sale’ with the Serie A side proving historically ‘to be adept at handling the departure of key players’.

Amorim will certainly need help in the transfer market, unless some of his current players turn their form around and former Man City defender Richard Dunne reckons Man Utd have been the flops of the season so far.

Dunne told Gambling Zone: “It’s hard to pick on any one player as someone that has disappointed this season.

“If you’re looking at a team, it’s difficult to look beyond Man United. They have underperformed for what their expectations are at the club.

“They gave Erik Ten Hag a new contract and expected bigger and brighter things, but there didn’t seem to be that investment from the players in to what he was trying to do. They didn’t seem to buy in the fact that Ten Hag was staying.

“What he wanted to do didn’t inspire any of their players, so I think a few of them have come out and said they’re disappointed with what they’ve done in the first period of the season and disappointed that it led to the sacking of Ten Hag.

“Between now and the end of the season they’ve got a new manager. They’ve got 25 games + to go and prove themselves. A lot of these players will be fighting for their Man United future.

“For Man United to be successful, they need their best players trying regardless of who the manager is.  They’ve got a lot to prove over the next seven, eight months.”