Casemiro’s renaissance under Amorim after a summer in which the manager was happy and willing for the club to offload the Brazilian should certainly offer Mainoo some hope that all is not lost. But it is hard to escape the feeling that Amorim is simply not sold on the player and wants a different profile of midfielder with more mobility, physicality and urgency, who is better coping with defensive transitions.
Mainoo’s only start this season was in the embarrassing Carabao Cup defeat by League Two Grimsby Town in August and he has played just 183 minutes of Premier League football.
Against Arsenal, Fulham, Nottingham Forest and, most recently, West Ham, when United were struggling to score a second and ultimately conceded late on to draw, Mainoo did not even get off the bench.
It was after that game that it was put to Amorim that he simply did not “trust” the academy players, which prompted a rather spiky exchange with a reporter. Paul Scholes, the former United midfielder, who has been a vocal critic of Amorim’s handling of Mainoo, later suggested it was “bulls—” of the manager to suggest he viewed the player as a starter. Scholes even suggested Amorim was “ruining” Mainoo and that it was perplexing that a player with that technical quality could not get in a team that “can’t even control a game”. There are plenty of fans who share that opinion.
Scholes has been by no means the only former United player telling Mainoo he has to leave and, equally, there will be no shortage of takers should Amorim sanction a loan move next month, having denied the player that wish in the summer window.
Antonio Conte remains keen to add Mainoo to a Napoli squad that already contains Rasmus Hojlund, currently on loan from Old Trafford, and United old boys Scott McTominay and Romelu Lukaku, and the player still fancies a switch to the Italian club he wanted to join in August. But the number of clubs who want to take Mainoo, including plenty from the Premier League, comfortably runs into double figures.
Amorim cited Collyer’s challenges getting regular playing time on loan with West Bromwich Albion, Harry Amass’s struggles on loan with Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship and Chido Obi’s reduced starts for United’s under-21s as evidence of how things are rarely plain sailing for academy graduates.
“All these guys played when a lot of people were saying sack the manager,” Amorim said in reference to his use of those players during the chaos of last season.
Yet none of those players are at Mainoo’s level. “I understand all the interest [in Mainoo], I understand how important it is – the hopes that you as English guys have,” Amorim added. “I also just want to win and if he’s the right guy, I will put him [in]. No problem.”
There is just little evidence to suggest Amorim believes Mainoo is the right guy for him.
