A rising Southampton star is set to join Manchester United.placeholder image
A rising Southampton star is set to join Manchester United. | Getty Images
Manchester United have bolstered their youth academy once again with the signing of a Southampton star.
The north London rivals were named alongside Chelsea as teams who had been tracking the 16-year-old, alongside the Red Devils. However, it is the North West outfit that have won the transfer race and will pay a fee of £1 million to bring the player to Old Trafford.
Manchester United will also have to pay add-ons given the player’s young age and Southampton, who were relegated from the Premier League last season, have negotiated a 20 per cent sell on clause for the player.
Manchester United beat Arsenal and Spurs to sign youth star
Emsden-James is somewhat of an unknown to Premier League fans having never played for the Saints first team. He is, however, playing above his age group having been turning out for the under-18 Southampton side despite only turning 16 in March.
The England youth international is a coup for Manchester United, who continue to be prolific when it comes to signing up youth talent as part of a new transfer strategy. The club hopes that a focus on the future will put less pressure on spending huge sums on recruiting first team players.
Chido Obi and Ayden Heaven have both moved to Old Trafford from Arsenal last year and made their debuts for the Red Devils first team. It’s thought to be unlikely that Emsden-James makes an immediate impact on the first team and will instead work with the under-18 side at the club.
Heaven signed for Manchester United from the Gunners on February 1 and has already made six first team appearances. Explaining his decision to make the move, he said: “The opportunities that the young players have got here in the past. I think United had the most minutes given to teenagers last season [2023/24]. That convinced me to come here. And the people and the fans here are quite loving, and I felt that when I was playing. They’re so supportive.”
Mikel Arteta reflects on Premier League youth production
Speaking about youth production at Arsenal in January, as Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri impressed in the first team, manager Mikel Arteta said it is ‘impossible’ for the side to produce as many top players as clubs such as Barcelona. He put that down to regulations on English clubs.
Arteta, who started his career at Barcelona, said: “For example we lived in La Masia. To replicate that here is impossible. We cannot do it. It is the most unique environment I have seen in my life, the most competitive, the most inspiring and the most professional environment at any club or academy that I have seen that replicates a first-team environment at 14 or 15 years old. To do that with the capacity to recruit from all over Spain, or all over the world if you wanted at that time, that is very difficult to achieve.
“It’s so limited, that’s why with the financial situation that all the clubs have at the moment. But that’s a regulation – it might change, it might not. We just need to be so good with the actual regulation right now. But it is very different in Europe. That’s the thing that I don’t think is very, very fair.”
In other news, Arsenal and Chelsea 'target' is 'furious' with club after fresh transfer twist.
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