This year’s deadline day can be hectic for Manchester United. Before the deadline on Monday, the Red Devils are planning a number of departures.
And while Ruben Amorim works to get United back on track, some of them would be welcomed while others might not be. When academy graduate Axel Tuanzebe left the team for Ipswich Town on the day of the 2023 deadline, it was undoubtedly the case.
After joining the Red Devils at the age of eight and rising through the ranks of the club’s junior system, his 17-year affiliation came to an end with the transfer to Portman Road.
He was named the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year in 2015, and in a Carabao Cup match against Rochdale in 2019, club legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer crowned him the team’s youngest-ever captain.
Speaking at the time, Solskjaer said. “Axel is a captain in the making, he’s a leader. Why not give it to young kids? How does he handle it? He was fine, he enjoyed it. It’s just a way of telling him that we trust him.”
It wasn’t just Solskjaer who recognized Tuanzebe’s leadership potential. Among those who saw his potential as a Red Devils leader was Harry Maguire.
“We have a lot of leaders in the dressing room, a lot of senior pros,” Maguire said. “And you don’t have to be a senior pro to be a leader. Axel is a leader, in the ways that he works and speaks in the dressing room. And he’s only a young boy, he’s still learning his trade. I’m sure he’ll go on to have an unbelievable career.”
Due to injuries that severely hampered his tenure with the team, Tuanzebe left Old Trafford after making 37 appearances for the first team. And the fact that the defense filed a lawsuit against his former side for “medical negligence” seems to have been a sticking point for him.
Meanwhile, United appear to have moved on, with Amorim having put together a leadership group over the summer. He said: “We have a leadership group now. It’s not just Bruno. It’s not just Harry. It’s six guys now. They are responsible for the group.
“There are some things that in the last year I had to deal with. I said to them in this year, you deal with that. Small issues are with you guys. You are responsible. All these small changes, I think it’s helping the group.
“We have Bruno, we have Licha (Martinez), we have Harry, we have Diogo (Dalot), we have Tom (Heaton) and we have Nous (Mazraoui). So it’s not just the oldest one.
“Nous is in the group because he’s a character that I like. And I try to understand the dynamic of the group. Try to reach every space. They are the guys that are responsible to keep everyone in line.”
Tuanzebe, meanwhile, is back in the Premier League with Burnley, but he was left off of the Clarets’ roster for Saturday’s matchup with United.
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