The international break has once again acted as a reminder for Kobbie Mainoo that he might need to leave Man Utd to force his way back into the England squad.
The 2025/26 season is the worst time for Ruben Amorim to sideline Kobbie Mainoo, as it is likely to result in the player missing out on a World Cup berth.
Understandably, there is a lot of frustration at Amorim for pushing out one of Man Utd’s greatest academy products out of the club in this manner.
Amorim is surely answerable, but the final straw for Mainoo could have been what United did back in the summer window. It was a message that was loud and clear.
Kobbie Mainoo’s inspiration was cut ruthlessly in summer
Today, academy youngsters itching for a chance in the first team look at Kobbie Mainoo’s meteoric rise and see him as an example to replicate.
That is the part of the virtuous cycle at any club, where an academy product inspires the next generation to walk their path.
For Mainoo, it was no different, as he said in an interview last year that when he was coming through the ranks at Carrington, he had a clear role model.
Marcus Rashford’s story of scoring on his debut is the stuff academy players’ dreams are made of, so it’s no surprise that Mainoo grew up watching Rashford announce himself in style and dreamed of doing the same.
Mainoo said: “Yes, 100% [Marcus Rashford’s story inspired me]. When I was young, I used to watch his U18s clips. When he made his debut, I remember he wasn’t supposed to be starting.
“I remember my dad and I watching it, me pointing him out, saying Oh it’s it’s Marcus Rashford and then to watch him the way he burst onto the scene from there and then against Arsenal, and then carried on throughout the season, and then to where he is now, he’s always an inspiring story.
“It gives you hope coming from the academy that there’s a pathway. It’s a big thing with United. They always trust the young players and give them chances.”
Now that Rashford was vilified and sold, it might well have been the last straw for Mainoo because the club’s ethos is unrecognisable now.
Ruben Amorim is setting a dangerous precedent
The last line from the Mainoo snippet is particularly interesting, because Amorim seems to have moved the club away from those ethos.
There’s an argument to be made that he doesn’t want to throw the youngsters into a struggling team, but history has shown that youngsters have the ability to drag the team out of those struggles as well.
When the senior players are not performing, and yet he continues to stick with them, it just sends a poor message that experience will trump everything else.
Marcus Rashford’s sale would have come as a huge blow for people at the academy, especially because a player whose attitude was deemed not good enough for United is now impressing an infamous taskmaster in Hansi Flick.
Add to that Alejandro Garnacho’s sale, and the complete ignorance of the academy product by Amorim this season, and it is all shaping up to be a dangerous path.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s concerning comment about the academy is the icing on a truly terrible cake that speaks of a club that is no longer identifiable by Mainoo’s quotes.
Mainoo’s departure, if it happens, will be the final nail in the coffin.
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