According to transfer guru, Fabrizio Romano, Manchester United have signed Brighton’s youth prospect Toby Collyer for their youth team. The 17-year-old has already captained U16 and U17 England sides. He will be signing the contract on a three-year deal that will last till 2025. He will be Ralf Rangnick’s first signing since he has taken over at Manchester United.
Manchester United did not sign any player in January and many did not like the business they did. However, Rangnick is focusing on strengthening for the next season. The German manager will be taking up an advisory role after his tenure as the interim manager ends. United will have to start over from the summer of next season to build their squad according to the new manager’s needs.
Toby Collyer had a trial at Carrington where he played in a friendly against Huddersfield. He impressed the United scouts and subsequently, they made the move to complete the signing. The youngster could play both as a center-back and also as a central midfielder. Manchester United needs players in that position and could get a long-term option with Collyer.
Manchester United are infamously known to promote academy talent. Toby Collyer already has great pedigree having captained youth England sides. If he keeps up his form he could also be a product of United’s youth academy and eventually a first-team starter.
Why Manchester United went for Toby Collyer?
Having captained youth England sides, he is a leader and a character like that is always beneficial for the team. If he does that at United for the long term, he could even be considered as the future club captain, if things stay the same. However, he will have to do a lot of work before reaching those heights and fixating his name as the captain of Manchester United.
Toby Collyer is comfortable in playing as center-back as well as playing as a central midfielder. This combination could benefit United as they can mold him into a defensive midfielder. United had always wanted a proper defensive midfielder. The Red Devils will certainly look for a solution in the summer but Collyer could be the option to replace the next defensive midfielder joining United.
If the youngster does explode into life in a similar way to Phil Foden from Manchester City, United could save themselves a lot of money. Foreign clubs could be interested in signing the youngster and United will be enjoying that situation.
Although this signing may not get fans as much excited, it could still be positive amid all this chaos. This could be the start where United starts building things for the next season. Toby Collyer is certainly a highly-rated youngster and United finds themselves lucky to seal the deal before any other club could. However, the focus has to change on signing first-team players to start winning trophies.
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