Wheatley looking to kick on

Wheatley looking to kick on

Ethan Wheatley is determined to impress with England at the Under-19 European Championship finals.

The Manchester United striker scored seven minutes into the second half, with his side trailing 5-1 to Germany at the break, to help revive the Three Lions en route to an incredible 5-5 draw in Romania to set things up nicely for a final Group B encounter against the Netherlands on Friday.

The goal will have been another boost to the 19-year-old, who is enjoying representing his country, as he looks to finish the campaign on a real high.

“I’m just more concentrated on this tournament,” he told PA Sport. “But, yeah, since [Ruben Amorim came in, I was away with international camp and, obviously, went on loan in January, so I’ve not really been around it too much.

“But I want to be a Man United player in the future. If that doesn’t happen, then it obviously wasn’t meant to be. We’ll just see what happens in the future.”

Wheatley’s loan spell at Walsall did not go as planned but our 250th Academy graduate feels sharp after getting some game-time with our Under-21s towards the end of the domestic term.

“My second half of the season has been frustrating,” he added. “Not being able to show what I’m about, really.

“But I think this tournament is the perfect way to do it. I think there’ll be a lot of eyes on it and, obviously, representing your country in a Euros, there’s not much better than that.

“It’ll be good to hopefully impress and, just for myself and for the team, play my part and do well.

“The club have been good with me. They’ve let me come back and play a few Under-21s games, just to keep my legs going, so it’s been good to be back at United, developing and getting game-time.”

“Even if my first [loan move] didn’t go well – and it didn’t – I had it in the back of my head,” he added. “And I was telling staff around the club, it’s not going to define me as a player.

“It’s not going to judge where I end up in the future. I think it’s just like a little blip in my early career and, hopefully, I can just bounce back from it going into next season.”

Best of luck to Ethan for the remainder of the tournament!

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