Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has predicted that the club will look to sell academy stars Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho this summer.
Both players were stars of the show last season and their fine campaigns were capped with goals in the FA Cup final victory over Manchester City.
Nonetheless, this season has seen both players struggle. Garnacho has only scored one goal since November and Mainoo has missed numerous matches due to injury.
He has also failed to nail down a particular position in Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 formation.
The Red Devils are expected to have a tight budget this summer due to PSR rules and a potential lack of European football, so may need to get creative if they want to spend the money that Amorim craves to upgrade his playing squad.
There have been rumours that both Mainoo and Garnacho could be available for transfer. The club could make pure profit on their sale as they are products of Carrington.
Pundit Scholes has given his two cents on the situation and queried where the money will come from to sign new players this summer.
While speaking to Premier League Productions (via the Metro) he claimed, “where’s the money coming from for new signings? We saw those interviews with Sir Jim and they didn’t make good reading.
“It doesn’t look like Ruben Amorim will get a war chest to go to war with. It doesn’t feel like that.
“I get the impression, and I could be wrong, but I think they might sell the two young players. I think they might sell Mainoo and Garnacho.”
Scholes then claimed that both potential departures would “hurt” but particularly Mainoo as he has been with the club since he was a small kid.
Commenting on Mainoo he stated, “he had a brilliant season last year and it makes the academy system look bad if a player like him can’t make it and they have to sell him.”
Nonetheless, according to Scholes, the situation looks rather ominous and he warned, “I hope I’m wrong, I hope they don’t do that, but the noises I hear, it is a big concern.”
Scholes was also damning of United’s recent transfer business and pondered how they have spent so much yet don’t have a natural goalscorer.
He also queried why they had gone for so many players that they seemingly had a free run at, such as Joshua Zirkzee, Antony and Manuel Ugarte.
“They’re not fighting for players who other teams want and that’s possibly a problem as well. It’s bad recruitment, terrible recruitment.”
Finally, while he was pessimistic for the future, predicting that the club could be a mess for the “next five years”, he did throw his weight behind new boss Ruben Amorim and said now is the time to stick with a manager because the constant chopping and changing has not worked in the past.
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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.
