Manchester United have plenty of talented young players right now, but one in particular has earned the club’s trust.
Promoting academy players to the first team is something completely normal at Manchester United. This can be seen through the 251 academy players who have ended up making a senior competitive debut.
Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho are the two who will stand out in people’s minds over the past few seasons, but it is a tradition long prevalent at the club.
Prior to pre-season, Erik ten Hag even suggested that he was already looking for the United academy player ready to make the jump for the 2024/25 season, which he labelled a ‘surprise’ of the season.
It seems most likely that it would be either Harry Amass or Toby Collyer – now U21 manager Travis Binnion has been talking about the latter and raving about just how good he can be.
Toby Collyer praised by Travis Binnion
Collyer had a pretty impressive pre-season – proving himself against Arsenal in particular which will have done wonders in staking his claim to play a role this season.
Now, Binnion has been interviewed by the Manchester Evening News and in doing so discussed Collyer and his development at United.
“If Toby had a clean 18 months and a clean two and a half years with us, we would be talking about a really top young player,” Binnion explained.
“We’re talking about a really good young player with high potential. He joined us from another club and took a little while to get going.
“He couldn’t play in the FA Youth Cup run, so he was here but couldn’t play. He’s also had a couple of injuries and nothing terrible, but when you have a spell out of the game and have a couple of injuries that stop you playing, it takes a while to get going, but when we signed him, we had no doubts about what he was capable of – he’s a fantastic athlete and effective without the ball.
“Toby is also making great strides with the ball, so we’re talking here about someone who can be really effective in all moments of the game and I think that’s what you saw on tour.
“That’s why the manager has involved him in numerous squads. I think he’s earned the trust of the manager and that’s not easy to do, so great credit to him, he’s a fantastic lad.
“He’s got a superb attitude and he’s getting what he deserves. We just know the manager really likes him and the conversations I have with Fletch [Darren Fletcher] are along those lines and we talk about what’s right for his development, so what’s next and what does he need to do?”
For Binnion to be raving about Collyer and claiming that Ten Hag fully trusts him already says a lot about the kind of young player he is. It also bodes well for his future, with United considering Collyer to be a rare talent.
Collyer set for a breakout year at United
While Collyer was not in action against Fulham, he was an unused substitute and we get the feeling if the game was not 0-0 until the 87th minute, Collyer likely would have got to play.
Steve Sidwell has tipped Collyer to replicate the impact Mainoo had last season and while this may be a bit of a stretch, we definitely see him breaking through this season.
With Europa League and cup competitions likely to hand United favourable draws, Ten Hag will surely be rotating this season after what happened last season with injuries, so Collyer could find himself getting minutes.
If one player is to breakout this campaign, we imagine it will be Collyer and we cannot wait to see him in action.
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