WHY DID ANGEL GOMES LEAVE?

-By Hitanshu Samantaray

Angel Gomes, a product of the illustrious Manchester United Academy, a conveyor belt of some of the best prospects in English and apparently world football, a player straight out of Carrington, a player who was at the club since the tender age of five, has officially left the club after deciding not to sign his contract extension.

A Star In The Making

Gomes had been with Manchester United for 15 long years, progressing through the academy ranks constantly showing promise and leadership, voted as the Jimmy Murphy Player of the Year in May 2017, the youngest ever receiver of the award.

First-Team Breakthrough

Gomes made his first-team debut on 21st May 2017, becoming the youngest player to represent Manchester United at just 16 years and 263 days, and scored his first senior goal in a 2-1 pre-season friendly against Tottenham Hotspurs on 25th July 2019.

International Career

Gomes' performances for the Youth Teams had already started getting him international call-ups at Youth Level starting with his call up to the U-16s in August 2015, called up to the U-17s in August 2016 and even captained the team that won the U-17 World Cup Title.

"Ronaldinho is My Icon"

Gomes' preferred position is the No.10 position, playing that attacking midfielder position. He has been so good that his playing style has been compared to that of Ronaldinho due to his creativity, composure and dribbling ability. 

The Reason

Being a midfielder as a youngster and trying to break through the first-team is really difficult as such as being a midfielder they've to show real intelligence, vision and composure on the ball, try to create things and defend as well. Yet this lad showed so much potential that no one could ignore him.

But with the likes of Bruno, Pogba, Matic, Fred and McTominay already in their ranks, it would be really difficult to get much game time, leading to Gomes' often not finding himself on the team sheet.

Even he must've wondered that "Where do I even fit in in this squad?"

With Lingard and Pereira getting so much game time and blatantly wasting every opportunity, that very game time provided to Gomes could've been instrumental in Contract Negotiations but alas we couldn't provide him what he deserved.

The issue here is that we didn't even send Gomes or for that matter even Chong out on loan. These players need to play first-team football to let us have a better look at their game, to let them express and test themselves against tougher, stronger opponents, to give them a taste of competitive football, but most importantly give them the game-time they deserve but aren't just yet ready for the highest level.

We need to send players out on-loan for their own development, and BOOM we've a finished product ready to tear apart opposition teams.

According to The Independent, Gomes turned down a £25,000-a-week contract from United, despite Ole Gunnar Solksjaer wanting him to stay, and honestly, I don't blame Gomes for leaving as left for his own career.

What Does The Future Hold?

To sum it up, Angel Gomes definitely has the potential to be one of the best and we definitely lost out on a gem of a kid.

Could we have done more to avoid losing him? DEFINITELY.

Should we take a lesson from this and start sending players out on loan? DEFINITELY.

Chelsea has seemed interested in signing Gomes by probably trying to offer him a better salary but I don't think even they can provide him with what he desires, first-team football. They've Kante, Mount, Gilmour, Kovacic, Jorginho, Barkley, Loftus-Cheek. They've no means of fitting him in and will just send him on loan to the Championship.

Meanwhile, Dortmund has been a club who've really given young players the time and the proper stage to develop themselves and become more of a feeder club who buy young players with potential, develop them into world-class talents, give them a stage to showcase their talents to the world and sell them 2 or 3 years later for big money.

Wherever you go we wish you luck Santi and we hope that you develop into the kind of player you've been destined to. Hope that our paths cross again, but this is the junction when we say:

Goodbye and Good Luck Santi