James Garner turns nose up at Europa League, informs Erik ten Hag about Man Utd thinking

James Garner has said he wants to play every week and is ready to make another loan switch if the Manchester United midfielder fails in his bid to become a regular under Erik ten Hag.

Garner, from Birkenhead, has been out on loan at two clubs and he believes he is better for those experiences. The first spell at Watford ended in January 2021 after falling out of favour under Xisco Munoz.

Nottingham Forest though were quick to pick him up for the second part of the season. And Forest landed him again for the season last summer. And Garner helped deliver promotion for Forest after making 49 appearances in a defensive midfield role.

Injury prevented Garner making the impact he would have liked on Manchester United’s pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia. But the England Under-21 international is determined to take his chance and impress Ten Hag.

“I had a really good season last season – full of confidence, full of experience,” the academy graduate told the PA news agency. “The experience I didn’t have, I feel that now I do have.

“I played in some big pressure games and I just think it’s a new and improved me. It was almost as perfect a loan experience that I could possibly have had.

“I played pretty much every single game, played well and ended up winning promotion. For me, it’s probably the perfect loan.

“However, for me now because I’ve played two seasons back-to-back, where I’ve been playing games non-stop, I don’t really want to stop that.

“I want to play week in, week out. That is of course what I want to do.

“I’m not too sure but pre-season has been good so far and, like I said, hopefully in the next two, three weeks – we’ve still got games left – I can show what I can do.”

Garner made his first appearance of the