A lot of people not involved with Manchester United will not have heard of Will Keane, or may have just heard his name mentioned occasionally. United fans will know him though, while England U-21 fans may have too. He’s arguably the club’s biggest prospect at the moment and unlike Ravel Morrison, he’s doing everything right.
The young striker recently helped the reserve side come back from 3-0 down against Newcastle in a match that sealed the Northern Reserve League for Manchester United, setting them up with a national play-off final against Southern Reserve League winners Aston Villa. Will Keane played a pivotul role in turning the tides, scoring four goals to secure a 6-3 win. His side have won a total of 14 wins in 18 games and just have 4 games remaining in their domestic campaign. Keane made his Premier League debut as a substitute against Blackburn Rovers on New Year’s Eve, a month after he was called up to the England U-21 side for the first time.
With 17 goals and 8 assists for the second string side this season he’s been turning heads at United. Most notably was Sir Alex Ferguson, who has been keeping tabs on his reserve tams star player. The youngster has also gained plaudits from United legend Paul Scholes, who has compared him to Ruud Van Nistelrooy. It’s not just this season that has bought Will Keane success though, last term he scored 8 goals in Manchester United’s FA Youth Cup campaign, which they won. His overall tally for the academy side was 17 goals from 15 starts overall, as well as six goals in seven games in he reserve team.
Manchester United’s squad is ageing, we’ve already seen younger players like De Gea and Young bought in to start to replace the old guard. Michael Owen hasn’t had the best of times in Manchester and has found himself out of the pecking order a lot of the time, many are calling for Will Keane to replace him but I don’t see why United should stop there. Berbatov looks to be on his way out this Summer and Welbeck, although impressing at times, isn’t always up to scratch. He will progress but the whole strike force will benefit from some healthy competition for places. Hernandez, Rooney and Welbeck are usually the ones that are battling it out for first team places most often, throw Keane into the mix and it all adds up to a very tasty, and extremely threatening, mix.
Will Keane may not get his chances this season but next season could be his year to emerge. I’m expecting to see him feature during the Pre-season camapign, as well as in any run United have in the Carling Cup next year. I want to see him in the Premier League though, perhaps we will be lucky as he’s got a shot of joining the Olympic squad. Whenever it may be he features, the opposition defence needs to be careful. This boy has got talent, bags of it. Watch this space.
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