Manchester United can take a gamble on forgotten £19million winger in pre-season

One of Erik ten Hag's traits that appealed to Manchester United as they weighed up their managerial options for this summer was the faith he has shown in youth.

The 52-year-old was never shy of promoting youngsters at Ajax and he would give the best of them key roles in his successful teams, supplementing them with experience in the transfer market.

Like Ajax, United have one of the most respected and historic academies in Europe and Ten Hag will be running the rule over the youngsters available to him this summer.

READ MORE: United have other deadlines to meet in transfer window

With plenty of the first-team squad still on their summer holidays, training at Carrington has had a youthful look so far this week, bulked up by a string of players from the Under-23 squad.

Winger Amad might consider himself past age-group football now and the 19-year-old's reputation would certainly suggest his days in academy football are done.

Amad's last appearance in Premier League 2 came on November 6 last season, when he scored twice and created one more in a 3-2 win over Leeds United. As performances go, it was certainly convincing that his level was now above fixtures at Leigh Sports Village.

The problem for the Ivory Coast international is that his loan spell at Rangers in the second half of last season didn't suggest he was necessarily ready for first-team football either.

He did end his spell in Glasgow with a respectable three goals in 13 games, but he failed to get off the bench in all nine of their Europa League games and never played longer than 70 minutes. Being withdrawn at half-time at Celtic Park in his second appearance, when he'd looked out of place, was a low point.

That might have suggested that Amad needed another loan