JJ Gabriel's camp wanted the teenager to play 20 minutes in three different games for Man Utd before even considering scholarship talks with the club.
JJ Gabriel
JJ Gabriel's camp made demands of United they knew the club wouldn't fulfil
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When Manchester United posted their starting XI to face Fulham on social media last month, the number 4,368 was circled and visible at the top of the graphic. Everybody connected to this club knows what that figure means.
So when the three-week break for international football comes to an end on Saturday and United face Tottenham at Old Trafford, that number will rise to 4,369, and one of the proudest records in football will continue.
For the uninitiated, that is the number of successive matches in which United have fielded an academy graduate in a matchday squad, dating back to October 30, 1937. We are approaching 89 years of this football club being the gold standard in youth development and giving young players an opportunity to show what they can do.