Ex-Man Utd coach points finger at club for selling 4 kids now thriving at rivals
Ex-Manchester United coach Quinton Fortune reckons his former club have made a costly gaffe letting four of their young potential stars leave.
Fortune made 126 appearances for the Red Devils as a player between 1999 and 2006, lifting the Premier League title under Sir Alex Ferguson. The South Africa midfielder left for Bolton and eventually rounded off his career in Doncaster colours. But Fortune briefly returned to Old Trafford as Under 23s assistant coach in 2019 before moving on to Reading.
In that time back in Manchester, he worked with academy products such as James Garner, Angel Gomes, Teden Mengi and Anthony Elanga as they strived to make the grade.
Sadly, they all moved on without ever making their mark at the top level. But Mengi (Luton), Garner (Everton) and Elanga (Nottingham Forest) are all now Premier League regulars while Gomes has impressed in France with Lille.
With Erik ten Hag’s side currently struggling to break into true title challengers and lacking real squad depth quality, it’s easy to see why they could have missed a trick allowing them to leave. Fortune, now 46, told Metro.co.uk.
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“I was very fortunate to work with Teden Mengi, Jimmy (Garner) and Anthony Elanga – Andreas Pereira as well, who got into the first team after joining as a kid. I would love to have them all now. In hindsight you look back and think all of these kids are doing so great and they should be with us!
"But I’m happy for them because they’re doing what they love – their goal was obviously to play in the Premier League, and they’re playing. I don’t know if that would have been the situation at Manchester United if they had stayed.
Quinton Fortune made over 100 appearances for Man Utd as a player (Icon Sport via Getty Images)“That’s the difficult part for those kids, and I have to take my hat off to them because Teden and Jimmy were at Manchester United since they were babies. So for them to leave it was a big decision, to leave the nest.
"Credit to Jimmy because he went on loan to teams a couple of times in the Championship and it was a brave decision leaving United. Oh my goodness, but he wanted to play.”
Fortune added: “You have to earn your way to play every week and he wanted to prove himself. It’s hard to see them doing well because you want to see them at United. But the other side is that it’s great to see them doing well because they’re good kids and good players, and I am happy for them.”
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