Manchester United have another prolific youth striker despite signing Chido Obi-Martin

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Welcome to this week's edition of the Manchester United academy notebook.

The Manchester Evening News provide more coverage of United's academy than any other outlet and we experimented by publishing an academy notebook last season.

We waited for the academy football to get fully under way in 2024/25 to bring it back, and we will bring our readers the notebook most weeks now it's been relaunched.

It's currently the international break, which also impacts youth football, but it's worth looking back on the last seven days as there's been plenty going on around the academy.

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So without further ado, here is a round-up of the latest news from the club's youth set-up...

The U21s exit the EFL Trophy

Although the Under-21s just needed to avoid defeat to progress to the EFL Trophy knockout rounds on Wednesday night, they struggled against a strong Huddersfield Town side.

Huddersfield made just a handful of changes from their game in League One at the weekend and took control of the game in the final 30 minutes after a tightly contested hour.

Travis Binnion has regularly spoken of the importance of the EFL Trophy and academy staff are understood to view the competition as an opportunity to test 'elite young players' against higher opposition in a more pressured environment, which helps prepare them for the first-team.

The youngsters won against Barnsley and drew against Doncaster (winning the penalty shootout in that game) and it was a shame to see them crash out against Huddersfield.

Kone picks up an injury

Sekou Kone made his first start for the academy against Huddersfield and there were signs of quality and greenness in his performance. The midfielder joined United in the summer for a fee around £1million and his dynamic range of passing caught the eye in the first half.

But an experienced Huddersfield side became aware of his growing influence and began to pressure him, which saw Kone involved in a few strong challenges with the opposition.

Kone appeared to sustain a knock to the shin toward the end of the first half and limped off. He was substituted and Binnion confirmed his injury would have to be assessed. The 18-year-old was pictured leaving the stadium in a protective boot and hopefully that was just a precaution.

Biancheri's goalscoring form

It's about time Gabriele Biancheri got a mention in one of these academy notebook articles. The young striker has been in terrific form this season and has 13 goals in 12 appearances.

Biancheri moved to United's academy from Cardiff City at the beginning of 2023. He signed after a strong recommendation by Cardiff's former academy chief, David Hughes, who joined United in 2022, and it's fair to say he has thrived during his first 18 months in Manchester.

He celebrated his 18th birthday in September and it wouldn't be a surprise to see him inching close to being around the first-team squad if he continues to score at a rate of knots.

Understandably, there is huge excitement building at the potential of Chido Obi-Martin, but Biancheri is another superb striker prospect and has a bright future ahead of him.

(Image: John Peters/Manchester United via Getty Images.)

Fletcher and Wheatley called up

Binnion was without some prominent academy players against Huddersfield due to international call-ups. Jack Fletcher and Ethan Wheatley are two youngsters with high potential and were among the United representatives to be called up to the different England youth teams.

Fletcher was included in England's U18 squad and his father, Darren, briefly spoke to a few of us at the John Smith's Stadium, confirming he was flying to Spain with the Three Lions.

Wheatley was called up to England's U19 team and seems like a player who will get minutes under Ruben Amorim. It was bizarre Wheatley didn't get on the pitch against Barnsley in the Carabao Cup when Erik ten Hag was in charge and he shouldn't be disheartened by that decision.

Some members of academy staff felt Ten Hag could have taken more of an interest in the youth system and the decision to overlook Wheatley in that fixture raised eyebrows.

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