Angel Gomes admits it would be ‘difficult to say no’ to rejoining Manchester United.
The midfielder became the club’s youngest ever debutant when he made his first appearance at 16 but left Old Trafford in the summer of 2020 after just a handful of first-team appearances.
Gomes joined Lille where he has reinvented himself. His rise in France was rewarded with a call-up to the England squad by Lee Carsley in September, included again in October’s squad for upcoming games against Greece and Finland.
A number of Premier League clubs are monitoring the 24-year-old with Tottenham’s interest in him pre-dating his England call-up. Newcastle United and Liverpool have also been linked with moves.
But were the chance to rejoin United ever to present itself, Gomes would jump at the chance to return to Manchester.
‘There’ll always be that sentimental soft spot, so of course it’d be difficult to say no,’ Gomes told The Times.
Against Finland in September, Gomes was a controlling presence in midfield, stitching play together neatly as he demonstrated his technical ability on the ball in a fine debut performance.
United have just spent £52million on Manuel Ugarte, signing him from Paris Saint-Germain.
But even with his arrival, United’s midfield options are an injury away from looking wafer-thin again. Erik ten Hag’s side are also still lacking a player who can sit deep and control the game, the sort of player United legend Paul Scholes has demanded the club bring in.
Gomes replaced Wayne Rooney on the final day of the season against Crystal Palace in 2017, becoming the club’s youngest debutant since the legendary Duncan Edwards.
That first appearance came under Jose Mourinho but further chances under the Portuguese and his successor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer failed to materialise, prompting his exit.
‘It was the most difficult period of my career, ‘Gomes said. ‘On the pitch, off the pitch, I didn’t know what was going on. I spoke to [Solskjaer]. I spoke to the assistants as well because [assistant manager] Kieran McKenna had been my under-18s coach.
‘It just felt like they wanted me to stay and go with the flow. They wanted me to go on loan but there wasn’t really much in place. I felt that after being there my whole life in the academy, there would have been more of a plan for me to progress. That was the hardest pill to swallow. In the last six months, I just wanted it to end really,’
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