Manchester United’s new recruitment target helped develop four elite talents at Manchester City

Manchester United are now targeting Southampton’s director of football, Jason Wilcox, to be a key figure in their new sporting hierarchy under INEOS.

The Reds are trying to complete a move for Newcastle’s sporting director, Dan Ashworth, to move across to the same position at Old Trafford, and Wilcox would become another important piece of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new-look puzzle.

According to David Ornstein, the Old Trafford club are now working on a deal to appoint Wilcox in a role which would see him report directly to the sporting director.

It was added that United are yet to approach Southampton for the 52-year-old but that he is well-known and extremely highly regarded at the club and is aware of their interest.

Wilcox joined Southampton at the end of the 2022/23 season from Manchester City. He was the academy director at United’s rivals.

The aforementioned report explained that Phil Foden, Rico Lewis, Oscar Bobb and Cole Palmer were among the players who developed in the City Academy during Wilcox’s time as director.

Palmer has since moved to Chelsea for a large profit, whilst the other three are important players within Pep Guardiola’s squad.

This follows on from Omar Berrada making the decision to ditch City for United as the club’s new chief executive.

United’s current academy are flying high, with the Under-18s unbeaten in their league format with the likes of Harry Amass and Jack Fletcher highly rated within the academy.

Amass, 16, was spotted in the first-team training last week.