If Jose Mourinho’s not careful he’s going to get a reputation.
The Portuguese manager has only been in the Old Trafford hot seat for a few weeks and already players are being shipped out left, right and centre (okay, okay so he’s let one young player leave so far).
But now it’s young defender Guillermo Varela who has been allowed to fly out to join Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt for the season.
The 23-year-old Uruguayan featured in Mourinho’s first pre-season friendly, a 2-0 win over Wigan Athletic.
But the man who signed from Penarol in 2013 wasn’t part of the squad which flew out for pre-season proceedings in China.
Instead Varela, who has featured 10 times for the first team since making his Premier League debut against West Ham last December, will join a Frankfurt team who just managed to stay in the German top flight by the skin of their teeth last season with a play-off win over Nurnberg.
Mourinho hasn’t wasted any time bringing high profile signings in like Henrikh Mhkitaryan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Eric Bailly with former United youngster Paul Pogba looking more and more likely to join too.
But eyebrows were raised when Marcus Rashford’s highly rated contemporary Ashley Fletcher was released on a free transfer to West Ham. It looks like forward James Wilson could be heading to Fulham for the season, too.
However accusations that Mourinho is somehow anti-youth aren’t really sticking, despite getting rid of Fletcher and loaning out Varela.
A third of the squad he selected for the pre-season tour of China are part of United’s next generation of young talent.
Sam Johnstone, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Paddy McNair, Axel Tuanzebe, Adnan Januzaj, Jesse Lingard, Andreas Pereira, Will Keane and Marcus Rashford will all get their chance to shine in the Far East… before they’re all loaned out or released.
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