Erik ten Hag makes Man United prediction after Ethan Wheatley’s debut vs Sheffield United

Ethan Wheatley became the 250th Manchester United academy player to play a competitive first-team match for the club on Wednesday against Sheffield United.

The 18-year-old striker came on in the closing stages of the game for Rasmus Højlund to a huge cheer from the crowd.

It has been a moment that has been eagerly anticipated, with United approaching the 250 mark in the last year.

Wheatley scored a brace against Manchester City’s under-18s side on Tuesday night to win United the Premier League cup. It was a special night for the players and the club.

Ten Hag was delighted for the youngster and praised the youth staff who have been excellent during a double-winning campaign for the Under-18s, with the manager suggesting that there will be more debuts coming soon within the talented academy group.

“Credits to the academy, but you also see the club is growing,” he said. “It’s clear, we are improving, there are players coming up to the first-team.

“We are very pleased the 250th academy player made his debut tonight.”

Speaking on the game as a whole, which ended in a 4-2 win, Ten Hag was pleased with the performance.

“Many positives today. The resilience to fight back after losing two times. But also there were negatives. We gave it away, it can’t happen, unacceptable, we have to learn from this.

“But I’m happy with the win and we need to move on.”

Bruno Fernandes scored twice and assisted once. “He’s very consistent. At the moment he’s in very good form,” added Ten Hag.