Manchester United Target More Glory In U21 Final As Fryers Returns After Controversial Exit
Manchester United will look to secure further success on Monday night when their U21 side take on their Tottenham Hotspur counterparts in the final game of U21 Premier League.
In the inaugural conclusion to the revamped U21 campaign, Sir Alex Ferguson will be hoping to see the club's latest batch of fledglings replicate the success of the first team should they overcome the threat of Spurs who boast a potent side of their own, having scored an impressive 77 goals this season.
Tottenham's impressive campaign has been spearheaded by the club's two NextGen stars Shaquille Coulthirst and Kenneth McEvoy, whose blossoming form saw the side crowned Elite Group winners.
U21 coach Chris Ramsey has led his young hopefuls through a campaign where they have lost just five games during the two phases of the U21 Premier League, winning the first phase of the competition, National Group Two, at a canter before securing the Elite Group title.
A 3-2 win over Everton courtesy of a late winner from Jon Obika saw Spurs seal their place in tonight's final at Old Trafford. United secured their spot in the final after dismantling Liverpool in a typically heated semi-final last week, where a Larnell Cole hat trick proved to be the difference.
The sides have met on four occasions this season, with things finely poised with both having taken two wins apiece. Unlike the United defence that shipped five goals against West Brom on Sunday, Warren Joyce's side have enjoyed a defensively resolute campaign, having conceded just once in their last six games.
United will have Michael Keane, who has just completed a fine loan spell with Leicester City, available to partner Tom Thorpe at the centre of that formidable defence, with star player Adnan Januzaj, who was named in the first team squad for the clash at the Hawthorns, likely to take the role of his side's creative hub.
Tonight's game also reunites Zeki Fryers with his old club. A graduate of United's youth ranks, the full back left the club last summer after he failed to agree to a new contract. The 20-year-old joined Belgian outfit Standard Liege that summer, before controversially returning to England and joining Spurs in January.
Ferguson revealed his anger over the incident at the time, accusing Spurs of engineering Fryers' move away from Old Trafford to Belgium in order to avoid paying United a compensation fee for their development services.
Fryers' departure marked a disappointing spell where the club lost three of their brightest prospects within the space of six months, when the defender joined Ravel Morrison and Paul Pogba in leaving Old Trafford, that duo West Ham United and Juventus respectively.
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