Homegrown talent target…De Gea’s replacement found should he leave

Manchester United are looking forward to signing quality players into the squad, as well as suspending and letting go a number of them. Already those that are to be let go have been identified.

But one of those that aren’t likely to be let go is David De Gea who has since not given consent to a new contract extension although the club is said to have found his replacement should he leave the club.

There is a certain irony in Manchester United priding itself on its academy whilst targeting young homegrown players. James Garner has signed two new contracts over the past year, while Angel Gomes and Mason Greenwood signed their first professional deals in 2018. The focus has shifted onto Declan Rice, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Jadon Sancho, though.

United will almost certainly not sign all three in the summer but their interest is concrete. Sancho is the perfect profile of signing for United in that he fits their new age range, is British and would occupy a problem position. There is also the braggart buy sub-plot in that Sancho was once on City’s books.

Rice, 20, is a logical option and Hudson-Odoi, 18, more opportunistic as he enters the final year of his Chelsea contract. It must be dispiriting for Tahith Chong, last seen playing that near-fatal crossfield pass across the Parc des Princes pitch in added time, who is also older than Sancho. Now the senior squad is fuller and fitter, Garner, Gomes, Greenwood and Chong could all figure for the Under-23s against West Brom at Old Trafford on Friday night.

The quartet have at least appeared for the first-team. Greenwood became the 231st academy graduate to make that breakthrough whereas Dean Henderson is still waiting. The last time the 22-year-old ran out at Old Trafford it was in the 2015 FA Youth Cup and Axel Tuanzebe, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Marcus Rashford were among his teammates. Yet United might have a £20million on-loan asset.

United are working to address the stagnation their Under-23 players succumb to but Henderson has bucked the trend at loan level. He has worked his way up the ladder from non-league (Stockport) to the Championship with Sheffield United, via Grimsby in League Two and Shrewsbury in League One.

‘Thank you, Deano’ read one message from a Shrew at the Play-off final defeat at Wembley in May. Henderson saved a spot-kick in Shrewsbury’s defeat by Rotherham and was selected in the League One Team of the Year. United belatedly finalised a new contract that Henderson only signed on the proviso he head out on loan again. He could end this campaign as the Championship’s standout ‘keeper.

At Leeds last month, Henderson was subjected to what the Press Association’s Simon Peach, sat in the press box, described as the ‘most relentless stick I have ever heard a player get’. That was a mere week after Henderson copped plenty of Yorkshire verbals in the Sheffield Steel derby at Hillsborough.

Henderson was regularly referred to as ‘scum’ (reserved for United-related players) at Leeds but ended the encounter by cupping his ear. ‘Deano, Deano’ echoed around Elland Road.

The Blades dropped back down to third at the weekend but are just two points behind Leeds for the second automatic promotion spot. Henderson started England Under-21s’ European Championship warm-up with Germany at Bournemouth last week and is in competition with Angus Gunn to start at the finals in Italy and San Marino in June. Gareth Southgate name checked Henderson amid a possible senior call-up later this year.

Regardless of whether Sheffield United go up, stay down in the second tier, or if Henderson is Gunn’s deputy for the U21s, his re-sale value in the summer will be higher than the fee they obtained for Sam Johnstone.

United banked £6.5m rising to £10m from West Brom after Johnstone was denied promotion with Aston Villa. Johnstone only ever made the bench at United and, curiously for a player who told confidants, he was ‘desperate’ to leave, had no qualms about agreeing on a new contract after eight loans at the age of 23.

Johnstone, already 26, is potential Premier League standard, but his peripatetic time at United is a reminder of the near-impossible task their academy goalkeepers face. The last to hit double-figures for appearances was Gary Walsh in 1994-95. Mark Bosnich did so in 1999-00, but was re-signed. The only post-war United academy number one was Jack Crompton, a relative late bloomer at 24 in 1946.

Substitutes were only allowed in the English league in 1965-66 and since David Gaskell supported Alex Stepney, the academy goalie has been synonymous with back-up, whether it be Walsh, Kevin Pilkington, Nick Culkin, Paul Rachubka, Ben Amos, Johnstone or Joel Pereira. Henderson occupied that role for two substitute appearances in the FA Cup against Shrewsbury in 2016 and Blackburn in 2017. Only his mentality is strikingly different.

“I wouldn’t have signed a new deal if I wasn’t going straight out on loan,” Henderson said in June. “So I made sure that was part of it. Because I need to keep improving my development to go to the next level.

“I don’t agree with sitting in your comfort zone, if you’re good enough go and prove it, don’t sit there and say you’re good, just go out and show you’re good.”

United are still struggling to tie down David de Gea on a new long-term deal with less than 15 months to run on his contract. Talks started 18 months ago when United were second to City only on goal difference. De Gea wants to win the Champions League and wants reassurances it is possible at United, who are prepared to risk allowing him to negotiate with overseas clubs next January.

Negotiations could extend beyond the summer window and United will not be short of external candidates to replace De Gea. Jan Oblak’s representatives would welcome a big move away from Atletico Madrid but United have the option to look to within. Henderson is destined for Premier League football next season, with or without Sheffield United, and that could be the final step on the ladder to emulating Crompton.

United have their own homegrown target.

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