Kobbie Mainoo had two turning points before his Manchester United debut

It is July 2022 and Mancheseter United have not long lost their penultimate pre-season friendly against Atletico Madrid in Oslo. Nearly 1,300 miles away at the J Davison Stadium, a United XI is preparing to face National League Altrincham.

Altrincham won 2-1 in a run-out so inconsequential that, at the time of writing, the eight-minute highlights of their victory have amassed only 3,500 views on YouTube. The Altrincham match reporter, John Edwards, should be particularly pleased with one sentence.

"With Kobbie Mainoo the pick of the United youngsters by some distance, but all of them comfortable in possession, there was plenty to admire about a first half that finished goalless."

The United anoraks in the crowd noticed Mainoo, aged 17, was not as scrawny as he was when he lifted the FA Youth Cup a few months earlier. With a first major winner's medal to treasure and a new face in the manager's office at Carrington, Mainoo had embarked on a personal pre-season before returning to Carrington.

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Alejandro Garnacho, Mainoo's teammate in the youth team, would start for United against Rayo Vallecano at Old Trafford the day after Altrincham hosted United. Garnacho had been included in Ten Hag's tour squad but did not play a minute in Thailand and Australia after some tardy timekeeping.

Frenkie de Jong was topical with United's pursuit of the Barcelona midfielder at an impasse. Zidane Iqbal, an academy graduate who modelled his game on De Jong, acquitted himself impressively from Bangkok to Perth, via Melbourne.

It was not until September 16 that Ten Hag and his assistant, Mitchell van der Gaag, watched Mainoo in the