“No doubt…” – Man Utd coach offers exciting assessment about Sekou Kone after three appearances

Manchester United’s under-21s head coach Travis Binnion has offered an exciting assessment about Sekou Kone after his first three appearances for the club.

Sekou Kone joined Manchester United from Mali-based club Guidars FC in the summer for a reported £1 million fee.

The exciting 18-year-old midfielder took a while to get onto the pitch after missing a pre-season in the summer and being afforded the time to get used to his new surroundings in Manchester.

However, over the last two weeks he has made his first three appearances for the club. His first came for the Under-21s against Sunderland’s Academy in a second half cameo described as ‘really bright’.

He then appeared for the Under-19s in the UEFA Youth League, with a solid 45 minute cameo coming in the second half from the teenager.

Finally, he produced an exciting display against Huddersfield Town’s mens team on Tuesday evening before being forced off the pitch after 42 minutes due to an injury.

Those at United will be hoping that the issue is nothing serious, with Under-21s head coach Travis Binnion praising Kone for his impact so far in the Academy.

Binnion believes that the summer signing has already shown enough to suggest that he could become a ‘really good player’ that reaches the first-team.

“He’s a high potential player, there’s no doubt about that,” he told the Manchester Evening News. “His games to this point have been 20 minutes at Sunderland in a game we were poor in, 45 minutes in a game where we were completely dominant in Under-19s.

“To have his third game and his first start tonight, at that level, I thought for 20 minutes he was excellent. Then they get a little bit of pressure on him, it gets a little bit harder, it just shows he is learning where he’s at and it’s no problem.

“He’s shown more than enough in the three games to suggest that with time and with work he’s got a real chance of being a really good player, but it’s a high potential under-21 player with first-team potential, I don’t think we can get too ahead of ourselves.

“He’s come off injured tonight so will have to see the severity of that. He needs to get fit, stay fit, get a run of training and games and then we’ll where he’s at.

“It’s just playing games, seeing pre-match and post-match sessions, analysis, translating them. You can see he can play the game and he’s got real ability, it’s just a run now and consistency and letting him learn and develop at his own rate.”

Kone has shown useful attributes that many midfielders in the first-team at Old Trafford lack and in the longer term, it seems like he could potentially save the club a lot of money in one of the most important positions in football.

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 released every Wednesday at 6 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.