TEN-TIMES the player than Paul Scholes was as a teenager, Kobbie Mainoo was once the future of Manchester United after bursting onto the scene.
Now, the promising midfielder is open to leaving the club he joined at six years old before the close of the summer window on Monday.
Things are so bleak that the 20-year-old academy star’s best chance of a start under boss Ruben Amorim will come at Grimsby in the second round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
An early round cup tie at Blundell Park is about as good as it gets for Mainoo right now, having played not a single minute of United’s opening two winless Premier League games against Arsenal and Fulham .
Amorim revealed after his side’s limp 1–1 draw at Craven Cottage on Sunday: “He is fighting with Bruno Fernandes for that position”.
It’s ridiculous that Mainoo is now competing for the No. 6 role with one of Europe‘s top attacking midfielders, who has been shifted to an unfamiliar role to make room for Mason Mount and new No. 10s Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo .
It’s a near impossible battle to win against the team’s captain and best player, who appears undroppable – no matter the defensive mistakes he makes – and immune from injury.
Mainoo has gone from starting England’s Euro 2024 final against Spain , to feeding off scraps for minutes as Amorim argues he doesn’t get around the pitch quickly enough.
But, while sitting on the touchline watching 33-year-old Casemiro lumber through the motions every game must make him wonder how slow he must be.
A year ago, Kobbie Mainoo was a vital part of Erik ten Hag ‘s squad, fresh off an incredible season capped by his standout goal in the FA Cup final victory over Manchester City.
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His outstanding composure, poise and technical ability even led club legend Scholes to declare that Mainoo was “ten times the player I was at 19.”
He was regarded as one of Europe’s brightest talents, with many United fans hoping he’s emulate Scholes’ one-man club legacy.
That was highlighted by his third-place finish in last year’s Kopa Trophy, which is awarded to the world’s best under-21 talent and was won by Lamine Yamal .
But by the time Ten Hag was replaced by Amorim at the start of November, Mainoo was in the middle of a two-month lay-off due to a hamstring injury.
He has since featured in 28 of United’s 44 games under the Portuguese manager, starting only 15 of them, with his key contribution an extra-time equaliser from the bench in the 5-4 Europa League win over Lyon.
Including pre-season, Mainoo, who will consider a move under the right conditions this week, has started in two of United’s seven matches.
The Stockport lad’s exit has been more of a possibility than fans realised for some time now after his contract talks stalled a year ago.
When it first began, the main sticking point was Mainoo’s demand for around £180,000-a-week – up from his current £25,000 pay check.
He was negotiating from a position of strength after becoming a regular for club and country, with the likes of Casemiro , who was playing alongside him while earning a staggering £375,000-a-week
United have been unwilling to meet those terms, safe in the knowledge he is under contract until June 2027 with an option on the club’s side to extend it by another year.
When Amorim was asked for an update on negotiations on Friday, he said “there’s been no news on that front”.
But if Mainoo wants to catch Thomas Tuchel’s eye and be part of England’s squad next summer in the 2026 World Cup, then he has to be playing.
It’s almost a year since he won the last of his 10 caps, after the former Chelsea boss left him out of his first two squads.
The change in Mainoo’s fortunes has coincided with United coming under more pressure than ever to comply with Profit and Sustainability Rules that reward clubs “pure profit” for selling their homegrown players.
But fans were fuelled with rage when the news broke that United would consider cashing in on Mainoo, and that Chelsea were ready to pounce if he could not agree a new deal.
There is an argument that, given he only turned 20 in April, he should stay where he is and should take his manager’s dismissal as motivation.
Mainoo is understood to be weighing up his options and 10 top clubs from the Premier League and around Europe are monitoring his situation closely.
Or he could wait to see if the manager will be sacked soon, with Amorim’s disastrous record of seven wins in 29 games – a win rate identical to twice relegated Neil Warnock’s top-flight record.
United have five players ahead of Mainoo in the queue to shift, with his close pals Rasmus Hojlund set to join Napoli on loan and Alejandro Garnacho iced out of the squad altogether as he pushes for a move to Chelsea.
Remember that photograph of him, Garnacho and Hojlund perched on an advertising board at Old Trafford when Ten Hag’s side thumped West Ham 3-0 in February 2024.
The now outcast trio then recreated the viral photo ahead of last season’s new Adidas’s kit launch – but all seem to be surplus to requirements under Ten Hag’s successor.
It seems unlikely that Mainoo will follow Garnacho and Hojlund out of Old Trafford in what remains of this window.
But if he does leave it will threaten to end the 80-year record of United featuring an academy graduate in every game.
With Marcus Rashford shipped out on loan to Barcelona and Mainoo sidelined, there is nobody of Manc upbringing left in the squad under Amorim’s so-called ‘revolution’.
His pro career at United could come full circle in the club’s trip to Grimsby this week, with Mainoo making his debut against Charlton in the Carabao Cup in 2023 aged just 17.
