Manchester United’s loan strategy has been laid out as James Garner aims to catch the eye once again this weekend.
The midfielder will no doubt have United fans watching closely as he looks to help Nottingham Forest cause another upset in the FA Cup. Having already dispatched of Arsenal and Leicester, they face their toughest test yet as they meet Liverpool in the quarter-finals on Sunday.
Garner’s form since the turn of the year has caught the attention of supporters, particularly amid what has been a dismal season for United. With the 21-year-old returning to Old Trafford at the end of his loan spell at the City Ground, some fans have called for him to be given his chance next season.
He’s not the only player aiming to catch the eye while out on loan. United have plenty of young players plying their trade away from Old Trafford at the moment, including the likes of Ethan Laird, Di’Shon Bernard and Teden Mengi.
Ahead of Garner’s latest outing in the cup, United’s head of academy, Nick Cox, has given United’s website an insight into how the club are using loans in the development of their young players. United hope Garner’s spell at Forest will have him ready to challenge for the first team soon.
“I look at James Garner playing at Forest, with a couple of big cup upsets in recent weeks, and he’s become a bit of a household name,” Cox said.
“That’s wonderful for him. I don’t want to miss anyone out or single anyone out, but I also look at Dylan Levitt who has scored a couple of wonderful goals and I look at Ethan Galbraith slowly racking up senior appearances.
“Ultimately, what this is about is accumulating appearances. If you can get to 50 appearances you can maybe consider that this is going to be your job, if you can get to 100, you might think it’s your career, if you get to 150, this might now be a top-level career.
“We’re always trying to help the boys not just get to a debut but slowly build up experiences in games, first and foremost to prepare yourself for our first team, but if it’s not to be with our first team, to make sure you’ve got solid experience in the bank to make sure that you have a career that goes on for many years.”
Cox added: “Yes, getting minutes on the pitch is quite important, but it’s not the only measure of success of a loan period. An opportunity for young boys to go and experience senior football and to train every day with senior players is important, but the skill is to make sure we pick a loan experience to go and get the right returns.
"So we may put a boy out on loan just for the experience or the life skills, but at some point, we’ve got to put them out for a football development reason as well and make sure we get the right type of games or the right type of development whilst they’re not with us. We are constantly trying to assess all of the returns that we get in terms of a loan spell.”
Sign up to our United newsletter so you never miss an update from Old Trafford this season.
