COMMENT: A final chance? A shop window? Either way, Monday at the DW could be make or break for several of Manchester United's younger players against Wigan Athletic.
Their futures won't be decided on the night. No manager bases such a decision on one fleeting performance. But it could contribute - either way - regarding the futures of a handpicked few of United's prospects on Monday.
Leading into the FA Cup Third Round, the make-up of Erik ten Hag's training sessions at Carrington resembles more like international week. Even with senior pros like Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez making their welcome return to full-scale training, the manager called up a raft of young players from Travis Binnion's U21 squad.
Willy Kambwala, Dan Gore and Kobbie Mainoo, of course, were there. All three now establishing themselves in the plans of Ten Hag. But six others have also been involved: Maxi Oyedele, Omari Forson, Isak Hansen-Aaroen, Joe Hugill, Shola Shoretire and Sam Murray. A chance to get themselves in front of the manager. To outperform their senior teammates. And to fight for a place on matchday at Wigan.
Did any of them succeed? We'll know more come Monday night. But such opportunities will become less and less as United's medical room clears. This past week was their chance.
Significantly the futures of all six mentioned are in flux. Forson, formerly of Tottenham, Hugill and Shoretire are all off contract in June and locked in talks about new deals. Whether that's due to management seeing a future for them, or a chance to sell for a price later in the summer, time will tell. Hansen-Aaroen, the first signing of the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer era, another who's deal runs to June. The midfielder's agent admitting last week that all options are on the table.
Can they make it as United players? Being granted the chance to be involved in and around the first team does suggest Ten Hag is still keeping an open mind. And as he's shown with Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho, the manager is prepared to lean on youth if they perform. But that performance must include aggression, grinta.
It's what has seen Dan Gore propel himself into first team reckoning this season. Always rated highly inside the local Northwest, it's no insult to say Gore was starting well back in the field when Erik ten Hag arrived 18 months ago. Shoretire was the jewel. Hansen-Aaroen a player Ten Hag's Ajax had tracked at Tromso. Gifted. Talented footballers. If any of that generation at Carrington were going to make it, it would be those two. Even Forson, this past preseason, was taken on tour to the US by Ten Hag.
But it's Gore who's shot past them all. Talent, ability, sure. But what's stood out for Ten Hag and his staff has been Gore's aggression and attitude. Just like his FA Youth Cup winning teammate Garnacho, Gore has managed to set himself apart by his approach.
In terms of talent, for this column, Shoretire stands head-and-shoulders above them all. He is, at least was, a natural. At 16 playing for the U21s, it was like watching a 14 year-old Wayne Rooney playing in Everton's reserve team. You really thought, in the Geordie, United had something very special on their hands.
But now less than a month from turning 20, it just hasn't happened for the midfielder. Of course, given his diminutive stature, it can be reasoned Shoretire could be a late bloomer. As much as Jesse Lingard is today at a crossroads, the midfielder didn't establish himself at United until he was 23 years of age. Between then and now, Lingard would play for England at a World Cup and be a matchwinner in a League Cup final.
However, for Shoretire or Hansen-Aaroen to do the same, they really do need to meet Ten Hag halfway. Their talent has helped them get this far. But as Gore's former junior coach at Burnley, Lewis Craig, recently said. What's missing is something that can't be found in training drills.
"(Gore is) almost like your old-school Roy Keane type with hard challenges, but he's got unbelievable quality on the ball because he was a forward in the past as well," Craig told the Manchester Evening News earlier this season.
"In that Under-21 group at United, there have been the likes of Shola Shoretire and Isak Hansen-Aaroen but it seems like there's been something missing in them, which doesn't seem to be the case with Dan."
If a junior coach watching from afar will namecheck you and spot the issue, it's something clearly that needs to be addressed. Garnacho. Gore. Even Mainoo. All very different players, but there's also a common thread which ties them together.
For the likes of Shoretire and Hansen-Aaroen, they have their example of what's required. It's a question now of whether they can find "that something missing in them" before Ten Hag's window of opportunity shuts down.
