Manchester United signing has gone from outcast to undroppable in just nine games

For 887 days Amad's Manchester United career drifted from a much-hyped and unexpectedly expensive young promise to a player who looked likely to fall victim to a first-team cull this summer.

Between his inauspicious start in a Champions League dead rubber against Young Boys in the early days of Ralf Rangnick's spell in charge, to the Premier League fixture with Arsenal in May, Amad saw at least eight other right-wingers get picked ahead of him.

Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho have had a go at filling the vacancy while making it clear they prefer the left wing. Antony remains in the building but the £85million signing is no more than an afterthought now, denied the chance to add to his one minute on the pitch in the last eight games by Matthijs de Ligt's injury at Brighton.

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Then there are the players who had a go at playing on the right and have now left. Anthony Elanga, Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood, Facundo Pellistri and Omari Forson all had a go but failed to take their chance for varying reasons.

It turns out, United had a right-winger of high quality all along, right under their nose. Having spent £37m on him, it should hardly have come as a surprise, but then until the last four months, not much about Amad's trajectory has made sense.

That fee came after the Ivorian had played just 24 minutes of competitive football for Atalanta and while only £19m was up-front, a further £18m was included in add-ons for the 18-year-old, who had been on United's radar since he had spotted playing in an Under-15s match.

He scored on his third appearance for United but then