Update: Manchester United’s plan for exciting Chido Obi is becoming clear after first-team absence News

This week’s Man Utd academy notebook on the latest ongoings, brought to you by the Manchester Evening News.

Hello and welcome to this week’s Manchester United academy notebook.

The Manchester Evening News provide more coverage of United’s academy than any other outlet and we experimented by publishing an academy notebook last season.

The notebook was brought back during the 2024/25 campaign and its purpose is to provide readers with digestible information about the current ongoings around the youth setup.

It will be published every Wednesday and here is the latest academy news…

The U21s’ league campaign

The Premier League 2, which is the division for Under-21 players, changed format last season, which meant the upper and lower leagues combined into an extended 26-team league.

United have finished fifth this term, qualifying for the end-of-season play-offs, and the U21s will now host the 12th-placed side. Travis Binnion’s side ended the campaign with a 1-1 draw against Wolves on Monday, and Binnion reflected on the improved league position for 2024/2025.

“We’ve done enough to win the game there after a better second half, but not quite had that quality in their box,” said Binnion. “We’ve had a few games like that this season. I think we’ve shown a good style of play and come away from almost every game – except losses at Sunderland and Arsenal, where we weren’t good enough – thinking we should have won it.

“That’s somewhere we need to improve: being clinical when dominating the ball and creating lots of chances. Going into the play-offs, we need to put some thought into that.

“But the bigger picture is we’ve done better in the league this season [finishing fifth] than last [finishing 12th] which means we have a home game in the play-offs. Whether it’s Everton or Liverpool, we’re looking forward to the challenge. We hope to have four more games this season.

“We’ve got players regularly in first-team training, others who are involved in matchday squads, the U18s have several big games as they try to catch Man City, and now we have the play-offs for the U21s. It’s the business end of the season and we have a lot to play for. That’s great experience for the players.”

Obi played for the U21s

Chido Obi was absent from first-team training ahead of facing Lyon last week. The young striker was also absent from the U21 squad last Friday, which suggested he would be named on the bench at St. James’ Park, but it was decided he would miss out and play for the U21s against Wolves on Monday instead.

It’s unusual for the U21s to play two games in four days and Obi played the full 90 minutes against Wolves, so it will be interesting to see if he’s involved against their senior team on Sunday.

Obi is ineligible to play in the Europa League this season, but he could return to the first-team bench against Wolves at Old Trafford, especially since Joshua Zirkzee picked up an injury.

It seems Obi will continue to play between age groups to help his development.

Lacey back on the pitch

The MEN recently reported that Shea Lacey was being carefully handled and it was great to see him back on the pitch on Saturday after United decided it was best for him to miss a few weeks of action.

Lacey came off the bench in the 74th minute and recorded an assist for James Bailey’s goal. The youngster looked sharp and will look to build on that impressive cameo in the coming weeks.

The Under-18s have four important games remaining as they fight to retain their league title, and Lacey has the quality to provide inspiration from the bench at crucial moments.

Meet and greet with the kids

Ruben Amorim and United’s players met children in the pre-academy squad on Monday.

The Under-7s at United were given the opportunity to meet the first-team at Carrington, and the young children received the chance to meet and take photos with their football idols.

Amorim was pictured greeting the youngsters and Alejandro Garnacho also played a prominent role in the meet and greet. The majority of the first-team squad attended the event at Carrington, including Andre Onana, who was dropped to face Newcastle at St. James’ Park last weekend.