Manchester United's Rebuild: Lessons from Harry Amass and Youth Development
Manchester United’s summer was supposed to be about clarity. A fresh pre-season under Michael Carrick, a defined transfer plan, a clean break from the muddled thinking of the past decade.
Instead, one storyline keeps dragging them back to old habits: the left-back they might be about to lose on the cheap.
Amass and the £37m lesson United can’t ignore
Harry Amass is only 19, but his situation already feels like a test of whether United have learned anything from recent history.
The club are prepared to cash in on the young left-back for around £6 million, with Championship clubs circling and Premier League scouts taking notes. On paper, it’s tidy business for a player still on the fringes. In reality, it carries the stench of déjà vu.
Two years ago, United let Alvaro Carreras leave for Benfica in a £5.2m deal that barely registered outside Old Trafford. Twelve months later, they watched him stride into the Bernabeu in a £42m move to Real Madrid. A small profit for Benfica, a huge regret for United.
Now, with Luke Shaw entering the final year of his contract at 31 and Old Trafford short of specialist cover on that flank, United are flirting with the same mistake. Amass has already tasted senior football under Ruben Amorim, making seven first‑team appearances before heading to the Championship on loan last season. He’s not a fantasy prospect; he’s on the runway.
Supporters know it. Many have already voiced their anger at the idea of selling one of the club’s most highly rated academy products for “just” a few million, particularly in a position United are actively trying to reinforce this summer.
United insist they are reshaping the pathway, not closing it. The coming weeks will reveal whether that’s true or just another slogan.
Loan market opens for a generation – with four off-limits
Behind Amass sits a queue of hopefuls. United are ready to loan out almost their entire Under-21 squad for the 2026/27 season, determined to turn academy promise into hardened professionals.
Pre-season outings against Rosenborg and Wrexham have already given the likes of Shea Lacey and Ethan Williams a taste of senior intensity. The message from Carrington is clear: go and play real football.
But not everyone is available.
Lacey, twins Jack and Tyler Fletcher, and JJ Gabriel are understood to be “untouchable” this summer. They will stay, train with the first team, and try to force their way into Carrick’s plans from within. The rest are up for discussion, with United open to offers that promise genuine minutes rather than bench cameos.
That approach has already lit a fire under one young full-back.
Kamason stakes his claim
Jaydan Kamason has had to wait for his moment. The first player to sign a scholarship at United after emerging from the club’s Emerging Talent Programme, his rise stalled last season by two serious injuries.
Now he’s making up for lost time.
Used in both of United’s opening pre-season games against Wrexham and Rosenborg, the 19‑year‑old lit up the trip to Norway. Thrown on at half-time for Harry Maguire, he responded with two superb assists, driving forward from the back and changing the tempo of the game.
Kamason knows the reality. He could stay and fight, or head out on loan like so many of his peers. Either way, his target is unapologetically clear: the Manchester United first team.
He’s not alone. A cluster of youngsters are treating this pre-season as an audition in front of Carrick. Some will stay. Some will go. The trick for United is making sure the ones who leave don’t become the next Carreras.
Carrick’s puzzle: injuries, pre-season and a patched XI
While the academy debates rage, Carrick has a more immediate problem: putting out a competitive side on opening day.
United start their Premier League campaign away to newly promoted Hull on August 22, with the manager’s first full season beginning under a cloud of injuries and staggered returns.
At centre-back, the plan had been to build around Lisandro Martinez and new signing Matthijs de Ligt. Instead, De Ligt isn’t expected back until the autumn, and Martinez limped out of the World Cup final for Argentina with a muscle strain.
The good news for United is that Martinez’s injury is not as severe as first feared. Tests confirmed a strain rather than something more serious, and the defender – named in the World Cup team of the tournament despite Argentina’s extra-time defeat to Spain – is now on course to be fit for the trip to the MKM Stadium. Until then, the partnership of Harry Maguire and Willy Kambwala-Heaven looks set to continue.
Further forward, Kobbie Mainoo is nursing a back issue, while Benjamin Sesko has been working his way back from a shin problem that ruled him out of the first two pre-season friendlies against Wrexham and Rosenborg.
Carrington staff insist Sesko’s recovery is on schedule. He returned to outdoor training last week and has a chance of featuring against Atletico Madrid in Stockholm on August 1. The expectation is that he will start against Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg on August 8.
Those absences have forced Carrick into some creative thinking for the Hull opener. In midfield, he may lean on Mason Mount alongside new signing Youri Tielemans, looking for control and experience while Mainoo builds back his fitness. In attack, Bryan Mbeumo could be asked to lead the line, with Amad Diallo off the right and Matheus Cunha cutting in from the left.
It’s not the XI many would have predicted in May. It might be the one he needs in August.
A busy pre-season, a sharper edge
United’s pre-season schedule is no soft landing. After early run-outs against Wrexham and Rosenborg, the level spikes sharply.
Atletico Madrid await in Stockholm on August 1 at 2pm, a meeting with a seasoned European street-fighter. A week later, on August 8, it’s back-to-back Champions League winners PSG in Gothenburg. Leeds follow on August 12, then Milan on August 15, in a four-game run designed to stretch fitness, test depth and expose weaknesses before the Premier League begins.
All of it plays into Carrick’s wider rebuild. United ended last season with Champions League football secured after his appointment in January steadied the ship. The next step is trophies, with Andrey Santos already through the door and more signings expected.
Up front, the club are exploring options. Joshua Zirkzee, currently at United, is a major target for Juventus, who are pushing to take him on loan with a £30m option to buy. That move has knock-on effects across Europe.
Juventus had been eyeing Zirkzee as part of their attacking refresh, but reports in Italy now suggest they are “unlikely” to complete a deal after reaching an agreement with PSG to bring in Randal Kolo Muani on loan with a conditional obligation to buy. If that clause triggers, Kolo Muani will sign a five-year contract in Turin.
United, meanwhile, have weighed up a move for former Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic, now a free agent after his contract in Turin expired. The idea is simple: if Zirkzee leaves for Italy, an experienced centre-forward will be needed to balance Sesko’s youth.
In midfield, the club have moved for Roma’s Manu Kone. The French World Cup winner is reported to have agreed personal terms with United and is keen to join Carrick’s project. Talks with Roma are ongoing, with United preparing a bid in the region of £42.7m.
Welbeck, Henderson and the Chelsea reset
While United juggle their own rebuild, one of their former strikers is at the heart of another club’s reset.
Danny Welbeck has agreed a two-year deal to join Chelsea from Brighton, adding a seasoned voice to a young, volatile dressing room. Jordan Henderson has also arrived at Stamford Bridge, and the pair have already drawn praise from Gary Neville.
The former United defender believes Chelsea have finally addressed an obvious flaw.
“If you watched Chelsea for the last three, four or five years you’d say there’s inexperience right throughout the football club,” he told Sky Sports. Neville sees Welbeck and Henderson as the “spine” of senior professionals the club has lacked, players who know how to win Premier League titles and, just as importantly, how to police a dressing room.
“They’re still good players who can contribute 25-35 games a season,” he said, “but they will make sure the young players turn up every single day and give their all.”
It’s the kind of balance United are still trying to perfect: youth with a pathway, experience with authority.
Falcao’s second act
Away from club football, one of Old Trafford’s more forgettable imports is on the verge of a remarkable career pivot.
Radamel Falcao, whose expensive and underwhelming loan spells at Manchester United and Chelsea between 2014 and 2016 left English fans baffled, is being lined up as Colombia’s assistant manager.
Now 40 and a free agent after leaving Bogota side Millonarios, Falcao remains Colombia’s record scorer with 36 goals in 104 caps and a legend at Porto, Atletico Madrid and Monaco.
The Colombian FA (FCF) has identified him as the preferred No.2 to national coach Nestor Lorenzo, following the departure of former assistant Luis Amaranto Perea to take over at Independiente Medellin.
A source close to Lorenzo told El Tiempo that the coach is “pleased” about the possibility of Falcao joining his staff if he decides to retire from playing, and stressed that it was the FCF, not Lorenzo, who put Falcao’s name forward.
For a striker whose Premier League chapter never matched his reputation, the international stage may yet offer the perfect redemption arc.
Martinez, Mac Allister and the World Cup fallout
Back in Manchester, Lisandro Martinez has had to deal with more than just his rehabilitation.
In the emotional aftermath of Argentina’s World Cup semi-final win over England – a 2-1 victory that lit up both nations – Martinez was pictured holding a banner declaring “The Falklands are Argentina’s” during celebrations. Alexis Mac Allister stood nearby as the image circulated.
With tensions running high, private security firms were deployed to the north-west homes of both players. Guards remained on site for two days. There were no attempts to vandalise either property, and Manchester United played no role in arranging protection for Martinez’s residence, but the episode underlined the scrutiny that now shadows every step of a modern footballer.
Martinez’s focus now is simpler: get fit, get back, and anchor a defence that still looks fragile without him.
A summer that will define more than one season
United’s summer is crammed with moving parts: a manager embedding his ideas, a squad being reshaped, a pre-season schedule that offers no hiding place, and a conveyor belt of academy talent that could either underpin the future or haunt the club from afar.
Sell Harry Amass for £6m and watch him soar, and the Carreras comparison will become a stick to beat the hierarchy with for years. Handle Kamason, Lacey, the Fletchers and Gabriel wisely, and Carrick could have the core of a new United identity built in-house.
The fixtures are set. The dates are inked in. Atletico, PSG, Leeds, Milan, then Hull on opening day.
The question is no longer whether Manchester United are rebuilding. It’s whether they’re finally getting the foundations right.
