One manager has provided a brutal assessment on one of Manchester United’s former starlets after a tough two years away from the club.
Manchester United have many exciting talents within the club and a lot of them are trying to catch the eye of Ruben Amorim in the hopes of receiving a first-team call-up.
We’ve seen multiple of those players break through in recent years such as Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho and now Chido Obi.
However, on the other hand, some players end up having to leave Old Trafford to search for first-team opportunities and they are always wished well by those at United in their futures.
Isak Hansen-Aarøen was one of those players. He joined the club in 2020 as one of the most exciting young midfield players in Europe but decided in 2023 that it was best for him to leave the club.
United wanted him to sign a new contract and head out on loan but he decided against extending so the Reds eventually sold him to German side Werder Bremen in February 2024.
Manager gives brutal assessment of ex-United starlet
It has been a difficult spell for Hansen-Aarøen since that point, with the youngster only receiving three first-team appearances for the Bundesliga club before being sent on loan to Danish side Aalborg BK in January 2025.
After starting the first few games during that loan spell, the ex-United starlet has since been a substitute in six consecutive matches and has subsequently been dropped from the Norwegian Under-21s squad for upcoming games.
Norway U21s boss Jan Peder Jalland has been brutally honest in his assessment of Hansen-Aarøen’s struggles since departing United, and explained the importance of the 20-year-old making the right move in the summer to get his career back on track.
“It hasn’t been quite the development we hoped for in the last two years. We hoped he would take another step by playing first-team football. But that hasn’t been enough in his development,” he said, as per Sport Witness.
“He played at the start [of his loan spell]. Then he disappeared from a team that has struggled a lot. They only won one game after Christmas.
“This is a normal part of everyday life for younger players. It can fluctuate at times. His choice of club this summer will be important. I visited him last week. I informed him face to face.”
Youth development is tricky to predict
Development is extremely tricky to predict. Hansen-Aarøen was viewed as one of the best talents at the club not so long ago and is now struggling elsewhere.
That is why fans shouldn’t be putting too much pressure on these young players. Some are being touted as first-team players at the age of 16 – JJ Gabriel is just 14 and attracting attention already.
“One issue is we push too much from the beginning and you have social media and all the pressure around the young kids,” Amorim admitted earlier this week.
“It’s hard to control. I don’t want to say any names but I believe in all of them and sometimes, like you said, you have surprises.
“This is a massive club and that is a big question – sometimes we put our young kids on a pedestal and that is an important thing to change, because we need to control that.”
Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is streamed live every Thursday at 12:30 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.