Man Utd will be busy in the summer transfer market but will also be recruiting whilst mindful of their most talented academy graduates.
Phelan, McKenna and Solskjaer are mindful of United's promising young players
Chelsea have so many players out on loan their own website has an 'On-loan Players' page. Forty-one of them are scattered across the globe like black ops agents designated individual assignments and some have been attached to the club for so long they are cult Football Manager figures (hello, Lucas Piazon).
United might be struggling to keep track of how many they have loaned out following the winter exodus. The current count is 13 and - deep breath - they are: Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Axel Tuanzebe, Dean Henderson,Kieran O'Hara, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, James Wilson, Demetri Mitchell, Joel Pereira, Regan Poole, Matty Willock, Ethan Hamilton, Callum Whelan and Thomas Sang. Zak Dearnley's stint with Oldham ended on Tuesday due to injury.
Fosu-Mensah is the only one who earned a Premier League loan and it was so disastrous he went four months without a start under Claudio Ranieri at Fulham. Scott Parker selected the Dutchman three times before he succumbed to a knee ligament injury that required surgery. Overall, Fosu-Mensah appeared 13 times in the league's leakiest defence and his refusal to leave in January for more playing time elsewhere did not impress Fulham or United.
It is not callous to question why United offered some of their academy graduates new deals at the end of last term. Whelan, 20, joined League Two Port Vale on deadline day and is yet to make a squad. Thomas Sang, 19, played once for the Under-23s this season before he joined National League Fylde, where he has not been named in a matchday 18 once. He was given a United extension last May.
Scotland has become a haven for United's second string: James Wilson, with three goals for Aberdeen all season, played at wing-back against Rangers at the weekend and Matty Willock has had forgettable spells at St Johnstone and St Mirren. Wilson wanted a Championship loan but could not cut it in the second tier with Derby or Sheffield United. Demetri Mitchell would have headed there in the summer but for injury, so returned to Hearts but suffered a season-ending injury in February.
Borthwick-Jackson has started 28 league games at Scunthorpe, bound for relegation to the fourth tier and Pereira - touted as potentially the best Portuguese goalkeeper of his generation by Jose Mourinho - has lined up just twice for Belgian side KV Kortrijk. He was not involved in their Saturday victory at Royal Excel Mouscron.
Not all of them have flunked. O'Hara could help keep Macclesfield in the Football League, League Two promotion is possible for Regan Poole with Newport County and Ethan Hamilton has shone during Rochdale's rise from League One relegation fodder to mid-table security.
The harsh reality is the aforementioned players are not expected to make it at United. All bar Sang are in their 20s and some should have been as brave as RoShaun Williams and exited permanently in January. Tyrell Warren and DJ Buffonge have both had trials with Bolton's and Derby's development teams in recent months but are still on United's books. Warren, Buffonge, Whelan, Willock, Sang, Dearnley and Joshua Bohui could be released in the summer.
What is startling for United is the loan system has enhanced their first-team squad a handful of times over the last decade. Tom Cleverley developed on an annual basis from League One (Leicester) to the Premier League (Wigan), via Watford in the Championship. Danny Welbeck rallied after a dubious loan to Darren Ferguson's Preston with a breakthrough campaign with Sunderland in 2010-11 and Jesse Lingard did a tour of the Championship grounds with Leicester, Birmingham, Brighton and Derby within a two-and-a-half year period.
Lingard is a legitimate success at United. Sir Alex Ferguson made Cleverley look like such a seasoned United player his ankle injury at Everton in 2011 left the neglected midfield department in such a state Paul Scholes had to re-emerge from retirement. That was the season Welbeck ousted Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year Javier Hernandez to become a first-teamer aged 20.
Tuanzebe and Henderson have been on loan in the upper echelons of the Championship
In Dean Henderson and Axel Tuanzebe, United have two talents who could buck the loan trend. The benefits might not be felt this summer. Henderson, 22, is eager to secure a second-season loan with Sheffield United now they have secured Premier League football though United could negotiate an improved contract as part of negotiations. United obtained £6.5million rising to £10m from West Brom for 'keeper Sam Johnstone last year but Henderson is already at a more advanced level and his Premier League promotion is timely, what with David de Gea's protracted contract negotiations and forlorn form.
Henderson and Tuanzebe were signed up on new deals last year and Tuanzebe, 21, has impressively recovered from a metatarsal injury to re-establish himself as a first-teamer with Aston Villa in time for their Play-off promotion push. Tuanzebe has started in four of their last five games and might still make the England Under-21 European Championship squad, with Henderson's place already assured. Even at a youthful age, Tuanzebe is a veteran of three United pre-season tours and was seriously considered for a starting berth in the Europa League final by Mourinho two years ago.
Realistically, United are going to shift one central defender in the summer, what with Antonio Valencia going and Matteo Darmian expected to go. Tuanzebe and a top-drawer central defensive addition would ease the transition amid United's reluctance to revert to the transfer 'churn' of Louis van Gaal's stewardship.
Or he could return to his Villa assignment.
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