Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, the world’s greatest ‘mastermind’, has claimed that local rivals Manchester United have a player they want to sign. He’s United ‘legend’ Gary Neville. The claim.
United won 3-0 against Everton in the 13th round of the 2023-24 English Premier League (EPL) on Sunday. Alejandro Garnacho, Marcus Rashford, and Anthony Martial scored in quick succession. It was the first big win for United in a long time. The win moves United into sixth place in the league.
Neville, who watched the game, told Sky Sports in the UK that the best players were not the ones who scored. It wasn’t the goal scorers. Neville named an unexpected player. It was midfielder Kobi Mainu, who made his United debut.
Born in 2005, Mainu is just 18 years old. He came through the United youth ranks and broke into the first team in 2022. He made three appearances for the club last season, including one in the league. He started against Everton this season. It was Mainu’s first career start. He came on in place of Kasemir and had one of his best performances.
Neville said: “Mainu is still young. He’s still got a lot of work to do. He has a lot of time left. He’s going to have tougher challenges, tougher games. It’s pointless to get excited too quickly, to make assessments. But if you look at the temperament of a young player sometimes, Mainu obviously has the technical ability and skill. If he didn’t have that, he wouldn’t be playing for United in the first place.”
Neville then brought up Guardiola’s name: “Mainu started against Everton, he was being taught, he was being tested. For his first start, I thought he looked like a Man City player. Guardiola must have thought, ‘I want him in the City midfield, what he does is what a City midfielder does’.”
Finally, Neville added: “He was very calm and elegant, always looking forward and knowing where his teammates were. It was very, very good, and he’s only 18 years old.”