Utd U18s beat Chelsea 5-1 in the Youth Cup with a hattrick from the much hyped Chido Obi-Martin, whi was signed from Arsenal.
I know people love goals but once again just take a watch of those highlights and tell me what Obi-Martin does that will work at first team level… first goal is a run off the CB that a PL defender wouldn’t allow and he isn’t closed down by the GK so has a simple finish then he has two tap ins.
Jaydan Kamason, who played RB, is for the best player in that U18 team. He was superb, watch his build up and cross for James Scanlon’s first goal.
Look at that, entirely predictable the BBC have a puff piece on Obi, quoting some nobody youtuber that he’d be a first teamer at Arsenal now and then a random Man Utd fan claiming that “At under-18 and under-21 level, he hasn’t really played against anyone as quick and strong” Which is fair comment but does also fail to mention that he has played just twice at U21 level despite his big reputation and has failed to score yet.
The idea from the Arsenal commentor that he’d be in the first team just smacks of ignorance. Arsenal had a clear pathway to move him into the U21 squad and did not do it. They wouldn’t be turning to him now even with their striker issues and if they did Obi would be easily handled by PL defenders. Being tall isn’t enough to trouble professional players but yeah you’re going to find success against a 5’6" 16 year old CB.
All this would serve is that Ratcliffe would end up outsourcing most of these jobs to external agencies.
It’s sad and tone deaf because the people out of a job are people who care for the club and who’ve probably worked their asses of for this club.
But who cares eh. Rashford gets 350k a week , Casemiro gets roughly the same amount , Antony on 200+ a week as well. Ordinary honest folks getting shafted because of the money being given by the superich to the super rich.
The fact that Ratcliffe has gone with the lowest denominators means that he’s got no empathy and he’s certainly incapable of running a people centric business (as that’s what football clubs are).
If the finances were that bad , why didn’t he let Casemiro , Antony etc move on the free. Even if to atleast get their wages out. Even if it means United will struggle in the transfer market for a while due to that.
The newsflash for him is that United are still going to struggle in the transfer market regardless of whether he calls more of the lowest denominators out.
I don’t think ManU is limited to destroying the careers of just one promising young player at a time. Obi is probably the 2026 or 2027 Mainoo, though Sweeting’s comments suggest he is likely to be derailed earlier in his development
You’re telling me they’ll have to rely on kids from their world class academy, either by selling those who have already broken through or giving chances to their best ones? Oh, my heart breaks.
