MANCHESTER UNITED’S next fixture against Everton is exactly one year on from Ruben Amorim’s first match in charge at Ipswich.
That was also the date that the die was cast with Kobbie Mainoo.
The midfielder had been out for six weeks with a muscle injury but was fit enough to participate in Amorim’s first training session at the start of that week.
Six days later, Mainoo was benched at Portman Road as Casemiro and Christian Eriksen started in midfield.
Those were peculiar picks by Amorim as he opted for the past.
Mainoo represented the present and the future. Now HIS future is mired in uncertainty.
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The 20-year-old’s only start this season was in United’s farcical League Cup exit to Grimsby Town on August 27.
Mainoo has clocked up a mere 138 minutes in this Premier League campaign — and started just 16 of Amorim’s 55 matches as United boss.
Before Amorim joined, Mainoo had lined up in 37 out of 52 games after his full league debut at Everton in November 2023.
Erik ten Hag was such a champion of Mainoo that he picked him to start in 27 of the last 28 games of the 2023-24 season.
Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho were Ten Hag’s academy legacies at United.
Yet Amorim packed off the petulant Garnacho to Chelsea, and Mainoo is out in the cold — having once been seen by fans as the club’s new poster boy.
Mainoo started for England in the Euro 2024 last eight, semi-final and final but has not played for the national team since September 2024.
Thomas Tuchel has not picked Mainoo in any of his five squad get-togethers.
He seems to have settled on Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson in midfield, with Adam Wharton and new call-up Alex Scott now ahead of him in the queue.
After United blocked his bid to leave on loan late in the summer transfer window, Mainoo could not have imagined he would still be waiting for a league start in November.
Acknowledging it was a wrench to limit his playing time, Amorim explained: “Imagine for me to have Kobbie Mainoo with the minutes that he’s playing.
“He needs more games for me to make a rotation as, with one game, it’s really hard. I have to take out one of the guys that is playing to put another in.
“With more games, you can manage the group in a different way.”
Mainoo has played longer than half an hour just once in the Prem this term — as a half-time sub against Burnley in August.
Amorim effectively sees him and skipper Bruno Fernandes as vying for the same midfield slot in his 3-4-2-1 system.
And Portuguese talisman Fernandes is never likely to be dropped.
In an interview to mark his 300th Red Devils appearance last month, Fernandes mentioned Mainoo unprompted.
He said: “Kobbie is very capable of doing what I do — but in a different way.
“If you look at the numbers, I am more capable of scoring, probably Kobbie is more capable of taking on people.
“We’re different but still can give good things to the team in a different way. So, I like the competition.”
Mainoo’s last action was a 20-minute cameo against Brighton on October 25.
His 70th-minute arrival — along with Patrick Dorgu — almost cost Amorim’s side.
United were 3-0 up when Mainoo emerged but got pegged back to 3-2 in added time before Bryan Mbeumo settled the result.
Once such a bubbly personality, Mainoo now often looks sullen. He does not even break into a smile for United’s official photographers whenever he arrives at Carrington.
He missed the draw with Spurs due to a knock and it meant United risked not having a single academy star in their first-team squad for the first time since 1937.
Yet that was extended to 4,333 games with Jack Fletcher’s inclusion.
Amorim said in August he does not want to be the man to halt this epic run and Mainoo should be concerned that his presence in the squad was essentially to keep that record going.
Yet a loan in January seems improbable.
United are light in midfield — Mainoo is one of three outright central midfielders — and they will lose Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui to the Africa Cup of Nations.
That may be Mainoo’s way back in. Afcon starts on December 21, the day United go to Aston Villa.
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It is a date for Mainoo to mark on the calendar.
But he looks destined for the bench yet again when Everton visit in ten days.
Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn 2 – all the info
TIME for round two of this generation’s family feud!
Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn go punch-for-punch once again as both rivals look to make their fathers proud.
The blockbuster rematch takes place at the 62,000-seater Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, November 15.
Eubank Jr narrowly outpointed his bitter foe after 12 brutal rounds in April to secure the bragging rights in what was certainly a Fight of the Year contender.
And the two British superstars will dance once more as Eubank Jr aims to do the double while Benn seeks revenge after suffering a first career loss.
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