Kobbie Mainoo: Nicky Butt is “worried” about Man United star | OneFootball

Former Manchester United midfielder Nicky Butt is “worried” about Kobbie Mainoo’s future at Old Trafford and suggests the club are wasting the youngster’s talent.

Stuck on the bench

Mainoo is yet to start a Premier League match this season with Ruben Amorim preferring the experienced pairing of Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes in his midfield pivot.

And it’s the latter the Portuguese coach has said Mainoo is in competition with for a starting place – a fight with only one winner, given Fernandes’ status as club captain and the team’s most influential player.

It constitutes a dramatic downturn in the 20-year-old midfielder’s importance for the Red Devils, having burst onto the scene under Erik ten Hag in the 2023/24 season.

He would go on to help his boyhood side lift the FA Cup that year, scoring in the final of the 2-1 win over Manchester City before being crowned the player of the tournament. This was then followed up by inclusion in the England squad for EURO 2024, where he started in the final against Spain.

But eighteen months on from these dizzy heights, Mainoo is experiencing the first nadir of his nascent career, with just 260 minutes of action across United’s 13 games this campaign – and little prospect of more.

Kobbie Mainoo stats

Amorim has consistently stated how much he rates Mainoo as a footballer during press-conferences. But the proof is in the pudding, and the dessert menu at Old Trafford is serving only Casemiro and Fernandes at present.

Mainoo is likely to push for a loan in January in the hopes of increasing his chances of being included in the Three Lion’s squad for the World Cup next summer, with Thomas Tuchel preferring other options recently.

And it’s this prospect – a Carrington graduate with fantastic talent leaving United – which worries Butt, a fellow midfielder from the academy.

Mainoo is a “superstar”

Speaking to Sky Sports, Butt describes Mainoo’s lack of involvement as “bizarre” because the youngster is a “superstar”.

“I’m worried about him because he’s a superstar. He’s got to the England team at 18, 19. He was one of the best performers in the Euros for us. He’s come through the academy at Man United from the age of seven. He was there when I was there as academy manager. I know him as a person. I knew him as a young boy. I know him as a young man. I know the talent that he’s got.

“And the scary thing for me is if Kobbie Mainoo was playing for Crystal Palace, for example, if he was at any other football club, bar Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, where it’s hard to get players out of, Man United would be in for him in January for 50 [or] 60 million.

“And it’s sad because I know how much he loves football. I know how much he loves the football club. More importantly, as we all do, we know the talent that he’s got and it’s a waste.

“And he’s a player that we could do with for a player of his ilk shouldn’t be going on loan. Either the club want you or you leave. It’s looking like the club don’t see him in the starting 11, which for me is bizarre with some of the players that are playing.”

Butt is not alone in his bemusement at Amorim’s apparent aversion to Mainoo this season, particularly given the abject displays of Manuel Ugarte, who has played nearly double the minutes of his English teammate.

The former United man even goes as to suggest he would advise Mainoo to push for an exit to help further his own career, despite how much Butt wants the 20-year-old to remain.

“So if I was his adviser, I’d be saying, ‘Look, if you don’t get in that starting 11 pretty soon, you need to go and get a new club that’s going to value you, going to help your career go forward and going to get you to the levels that you should be at and we all know you should be at.’”

And a former teammate of Butt mirrors his view, with Wes Brown – speaking in an exclusive interview with The Peoples Person – demanding Amorim give Mainoo more chances before the end of the season, where United are set to invest the bulk of their budget in two new midfielders.

If Mainoo is the “superstar” the club’s former players believe he is, he may end up saving United a huge fee come the summer. This writer certainly hopes it’s the end of the story we end up seeing, rather than the end of Mainoo’s career at Old Trafford.

Featured image George Wood via Getty Images

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