Former Manchester United winger Anthony Elanga has claimed that he had to leave Old Trafford due to a lack of development.
The Swede came through the United youth system and won the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award in 2020.
Consequently, he made his debut under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2021.
In total he played 55 times for the club, scoring four goals, most notably in the Champions League away to Atletico Madrid and at Elland Road against Leeds United.
Nonetheless, he struggled for regular minutes under Erik ten Hag and he was sold to Nottingham Forest in 2023 where he has impressed. He has been a recurring feature in their first eleven and success as the Tricky Trees find themselves fourth in the league.
Speaking to The Athletic, Elanga revealed why he felt he needed to move on from United last year.
“I made the right decision, 100 per cent. I have not really spoken about this, but at the time at United, I was very young and I was coming into a team that was struggling.”
The 22 year old did comment that he was excited to be playing for a club the size of the Red Devils, especially as a teenager but he did admit his career felt stunted.
“I also never felt as though I was improving. I was playing for the sake of playing when I did get the odd opportunity off the bench.”
He claimed the move to the City Ground was massive as he has had the “opportunity to improve” after getting 90 minutes on a much more regular basis.
Comparing his situation at United and Forest he claimed, “when I played, I felt like I had purpose; like I was playing and improving in the process. That was the biggest change for me.”
The former United man once again stated that he knows he has made the right choice for his career asserting, “I feel as though I know the league inside-out now, because I have had the chance to learn. I have no regrets, because I am enjoying playing fantastic football with this team. We are in a really good place at the moment.”
Elanga has found regular minutes harder to come by recently but made an 11 minute substitute appearance in Forest’s 3-2 win over United at Old Trafford earlier in the month and scored his first goal of the season last weekend against Aston Villa.
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
