Ralf Rangnick's forgotten youngster could finally get his chance at Manchester United

From Fergie's Fledglings to the Brexit Babes? A colleague coined the latter moniker for Alejandro Garnacho, Alvaro Fernandez and Marc Jurado, all signed during the transition period of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.

United deprived Barcelona of Jurado, Fernandez left Real Madrid and Garnacho switched from Atletico in the summer of 2020. The United academy head Nick Cox acknowledged 'Brexit Babes' was a good headline (kudos to PA's Simon Peach) but downplayed the timing of the three amigos' moves.

"Recruitment of those players, European players, there was an intake that was never driven by Brexit," he insisted. "I completely get why people thought that was the case. We don't stockpile here, what we do is we look at where we've got gaps in our pipeline of players that might eventually puncture the first-team squad.

"And you start to go, 'Well, if we've got one in the squad of a certain age, if we've got enough sink beneath that might go and support that squad in two years, five years, eight years, 10 years'. That's how we recruit here.

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"So there was a need, a positional need to make sure that we could keep supporting the first-team squad, which is why we ended up bringing some players into the club. They had to be European-based players. But it wasn't a reaction to Brexit."

Jurado and Fernandez were on the same flight that touched down on the Manchester runway almost three years ago. There was such fanfare about Jurado, a right-back, and Fernandez, a left-back, that photographers captured their arrival at Terminal 3.

One fan clocked a United official's jacket and discourteously took a selfie with them, rather than Jurado or Fernandez.