Manchester United opinion: Manchester United should snap up Nathan Collins

According to reports in the Mirror, Manchester United have identified Nathan Collins as a target for the future, with Werden Bremen also looking at the young Irishman. Collins, 18, has been fantastic for Stoke City’s youth sides and would be a fantastic addition for years to come. 

The Irishman has already represented Ireland at the U19 level and is already quite a physical presence. He’s 1.93 meters tall, which would suggest that he’d be a handful with aerial duels even at his tender age. 

He has already represented the Stoke City under U18 and U23 sides and even made 3 appearances for the first-team in the Championship. 

Stoke have had a couple of hard years after getting relegated to the Championship in the 17/18 season, despite spending so many years in the Premier League. To make matters worse, they did not do any better in the Championship, finishing in 16th place. 

Collins might not see this as the best time for his development, as Stoke will be going through a rebuilding process. With the pressure of modern-day football, they might be forced to look at more short-term solutions.

Manchester United, on the other hand, are going through their own period of transition. It’s been a difficult six years for the giant club with many managerial appointments along the way. 

They went with a Premier League-proven manager looking for a step-up in David Moyes, which, unfortunately, didn’t work out for the Scotsman. They then went for a meticulous coach in Louis Van Gaal, who brought through some young players but was ultimately unsuccessful as he did not meet the club’s top-four requirements in his second season. 

They went for the shrewd tactician in Jose Mourinho and compromised on the future with short-term stopgaps. There was room for optimism for a short while but there seemed an inevitability about this marriage not sustaining and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was brought in to allow the club some time to rehabilitate.

As evident from his recent signings, Solskjaer seems to prefer younger players much like Busby and Ferguson. Collins would fall in line with those principles and would be identical to the purchases of Daniel James from Swansea and Aaron Wan-Bissaka from Crystal Palace.

Wan-Bissaka will slot in immediately to the first-team but James will be used as a squad player and Collins could see himself be used in a similar manner. 

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United have a history of producing the best young players in the country and, sometimes, snapping them up from other clubs. Collins can’t let such an opportunity pass him and should look to make the move.