Manchester United inspects two French Ligue 1 monsters, and Yoro is a national youth teammate! La Jue wants to build a world-class youth training

Manchester United inspected two French monsters this month. French media revealed that the Red Devils scouts appeared in Ligue 1, and then continued to pay attention to the players' games in the French under-21 national youth team, where they were teammates with Lenny Yoro.

On November 7, Manchester United scouts were spotted in the stands of Rennes' 1-0 victory over Paris FC. Rennes center back Jeremy Jacquet and forward Mohamed Kader Meite were the targets of their investigation.

The 20-year-old Jacquet was born in Paris on July 13, 2005. His debut was against Nice owned by Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. This season, the defender with pigtails has played every minute of all Rennes games. In the international arena, Jacquet was selected into the best team of the 2024 U19 European Cup. France lost to Spain in the final and finished second.

A recent statistic shows that Jacquet ranks first among the best U21 central defenders in Europe in terms of interception and regaining the ball, second in aerial duel success rate, and third in touch and pass success rate. Last summer, Jacquet renewed his contract with Rennes until 2029. Arsenal were closely linked with him but ultimately opted to sign Christian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie.

The 18-year-old Mette is of Ivorian descent and was born in Creteil, France. He is over 1.9 meters tall. He is the cousin of former Cardiff City and Reading striker Jakou Mete. He has played 11 times for Rennes this season, most of which came as a substitute, scoring 2 goals.

French journalist François Rozzi revealed that he had a conversation with Steve Hyde, Manchester United’s chief French scout. "I encountered something during the Paris FC game last Friday. Right in front of the media box, there are often scouts and transfer officers there to observe the performance of the players. A man walked by and asked over the fence in English: 'Can I get a list of the players?' I grabbed him and asked: 'Who do you work for, who are you here to inspect?' He didn't say much at first, but I managed to get the information out. The result was not surprising. It was not surprising that Manchester United's scouts went to inspect Jacquet and Mete. He asked me: "Who do you think I am targeting?" I said Jacquet and Mete, and he said he was right. "

Manchester United boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe is keen on youth training. After he took over football affairs, he focused on recruiting players from England, South America and Africa. Of course, as the owner of a French Ligue 1 team and a long-term resident of Monaco, Larjue also favors French players. This summer, the Red Devils signed Le Havre's 18-year-old forward Enzo Cana-Bjork for free and rented him to Switzerland's Lausanne Sporting, another team of Lajue.

La Jue criticized Manchester United's declining youth training standards last month, but people familiar with the matter emphasized that he was not talking about the players' talent, but the facilities of the youth training system. As a result, the club now plans to upgrade the academy's facilities to bring them in line with the men's and women's first-team training facilities that have been refurbished over the past two years to a "world-class" level.

In 2023, Manchester United will build a training building worth 10 million pounds for the women's football team in Carrington, and the first-team training center that Larjue invested 50 million pounds of his own money was also put into use in August this year. Manchester United's youth training center was built in 2002. The club did not immediately renovate it because the first team borrowed the women's football training ground next to it and the renovation would affect the team's practice.

However, after the appointment of new youth training director Stephen Torpe this summer, Manchester United is determined to improve the level of youth training. Last month, Manchester United announced that it would redevelop the Carrington academy building to "leading standards". Torpe, along with athletic director Jason Wilcox, will be responsible for determining the standards for the new academy's facilities and developing the required budget.

In the past, the Manchester United youth team shared facilities such as the canteen with the first team, and the locker room was also near the first team. However, Larjue believes that separation is more conducive to motivating young players and allowing them to strive to enter the first team and receive different treatment.

The 44-year-old Torpe came from the Liverpool youth team and joined Manchester City in 2014. Young players he has worked with include Cole Palmer, Rico Lewis and James McAteer. Torpe said: "The most important thing is that we now have a world-class first-team environment, and the youth team must also support it. The environment we are in now is very good and very helpful for player development, but we must also create a world-class, innovative environment to provide space and technology for the youth team so that we can do better in modern football."