Man Utd lost 'captain in the making' in deal completed on transfer deadline day

Manchester United could be in line for a busy deadline day this year. A number of exits are on the cards for the Red Devils before the deadline on Monday.

And while some of them could be welcome as Ruben Amorim attempts to guide United back on track, some might not be as accepted as others. That was certainly the case when academy graduate Axel Tuanzebe left the club for Ipswich Town on deadline day in 2023.

The move to Portman Road brought to an end his 17-year association with the Red Devils, having been at the club from the age of eight and progressing through the club’s youth system.

Back in 2015, he won the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award while club icon Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made him the club’s youngest-ever captain in a Carabao Cup tie vs Rochdale in 2019.

Speaking at the time, Solskjaer said. "Axel is a captain in the making, he's a leader. Why not give it to young kids? How does he handle it? He was fine, he enjoyed it. It's just a way of telling him that we trust him."

Solskjaer wasn’t the only one aware of Tuanzebe’s leadership abilities. Harry Maguire was also one of those to note his potential to be leader with the Red Devils.

"We have a lot of leaders in the dressing room, a lot of senior pros," Maguire said. "And you don’t have to be a senior pro to be a leader. Axel is a leader, in the ways that he works and speaks in the dressing room. And he’s only a young boy, he’s still learning his trade. I’m sure he’ll go on to have an unbelievable career."

Tuanzebe left Old Trafford having made 37 appearances for the first team, injuries having hugely disrupted his time with the club. And that appears to have been a sticking point for the defender having lodged a legal complaint against his former side for “medical negligence”.

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Meanwhile, United appear to have moved on, with Amorim having put together a leadership group over the summer. He said: "We have a leadership group now. It's not just Bruno. It's not just Harry. It's six guys now. They are responsible for the group.

"There are some things that in the last year I had to deal with. I said to them in this year, you deal with that. Small issues are with you guys. You are responsible. All these small changes, I think it's helping the group.

"We have Bruno, we have Licha (Martinez), we have Harry, we have Diogo (Dalot), we have Tom (Heaton) and we have Nous (Mazraoui). So it's not just the oldest one.

"Nous is in the group because he's a character that I like. And I try to understand the dynamic of the group. Try to reach every space. They are the guys that are responsible to keep everyone in line."

Meanwhile, Tuanzebe now finds himself back in the Premier League with Burnley but he was not named in the Clarets’ squad for their clash against United on Saturday.

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