The England midfielder has been left with little choice but to depart the club he loves after falling down the pecking order under Ruben Amorim
Little more than a year ago, Kobbie Mainoo looked to be the present and future of both Manchester United and England. He had scored in the FA Cup final and helped take the Three Lions to the European Championship showpiece, starting throughout the knockout rounds. But now his future in both teams is in huge doubt.
Rather than preparing to play in big Premier League games or World Cup qualifiers in the coming weeks, Mainoo’s best chance of starting a game right now is against fourth-tier side Grimsby Town in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie. It is quite the fall from grace for a player who not long ago was being spoken about in the same way as Marc Guehi or Cole Palmer, but while his England team-mates’ careers have reached new heights, his has plummeted.
A brand new club is needed to help Mainoo get back on track to the top, with a previously unthinkable exit from United now feeling both inevitable and advisable. The Red Devils, though, need to think very, very carefully about letting this ultra-talented gem slip through their fingers.