Alejandro Garnacho has long ceased to be Manchester United’s great hope for the future. Right now, there is an argument to make that he is their best player. He is United’s joint-most productive player in the Premier League, tied with Bruno Fernandes on 10 goal contributions each. Within the last four months, the winger has scored five goals and notched five assists.
Yet his numbers, as impressive as they are, do not tell the whole story. Among supporters, Garnacho has reached almost messianic status. Every time he gets on the ball at Old Trafford, people get out of their seats. And practically every act he commits on the pitch is greeted with the familiar cry of ‘Viva Garnacho, running down the wing, hear United sing’.
There has been a special bond between United fans and Garnacho ever since he spearheaded the Under-18s side to glory in the FA Youth Cup in 2022, and the ties have grown stronger as he has made in-roads into the first team. There was an element of doubt about whether he could repeat his feats in youth football at the highest level, but little by little he has cast those aside, proving he has the mentality and maturity to match his extraordinary talents.
Garnacho has long settled the question of whether or not he is good enough for Manchester United. The big question now is whether or not Manchester United are good enough for him.
Running down the wing
It is easy to see why United fans love Garnacho. If there is one position that has defined the club over its rich history, it is the winger. George Best was United’s first global superstar and he played on the left wing. Sir Bobby Charlton might have been the more influential player overall, but Best was the one who excited the fans, and his name is still bellowed out by supporters at Old Trafford each week.
Best’s successor was Ryan Giggs, who dazzled opponents down the left wing for the best part of 24 years and became the club’s highest appearance maker. Giggs overlapped with David Beckham, the finest crosser of a ball in the club’s history, and later with Cristiano Ronaldo, who started out as a fleet-footed winger before turning into a centre-forward.
Anthony Martial, Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia were somewhat underwhelming successors before Marcus Rashford picked up the baton and developed into a thrilling left-forward. Garnacho is the latest exponent of the position, and like Best, Giggs and Rashford, he got his footballing education at United’s academy, albeit after joining at the age of 16 from Atletico Madrid. The fact he won the Youth Cup like Best, Giggs and Beckham is significant. But his style of play, his capacity to thrill and put on a show, is what makes him a real United player.
“I think that is in our blood, our style of football is designed to get supporters out of their chairs,” Nick Cox, United’s head of academy, told GOAL last year. “You have to be creative and to play with flair. Alejandro has really embraced the fact that our supporters not only warm to entertaining players, but they really enjoy watching young players that they feel are one of them.”
Taking responsibility
Garnacho is more than just a showman, though, and in the last four months he has added productivity to his already long list of attributes. Still only 19, this is his first full season in the senior team, but he has been stepping up and delivering with increasing frequency when his more experienced team-mates have been struggling.
Take Saturday’s game against Everton. United kept on being opened up by the visitors, who had 23 shots over the course of 90 minutes, only four fewer than Manchester City the previous week. With Rasmus Hojlund still missing, United had no centre-forward and no real focal point in attack.
So Garnacho took on responsibility, slicing through Everton’s defence and winning two penalties to put United in charge. In the second half, he was the player who looked most likely to strike again, and he should have done so when he was through on goal, albeit from a tight angle, and shot over the bar.
Erik ten Hag was beaming when he spoke about him afterwards in glowing terms. “I love him,” said the United manager. “He’s a young player and he needs a challenge, he loves a challenge. He’s very brave, very confident, and we have to push him to high levels.”
More focused after missing breakfast
That Garnacho had talent was no secret, but there were concerns about his work rate off the ball, his willingness to defend an his focus. And even as he was singing the player’s praises, Ten Hag felt the need to mention that focus. “Sometimes for young players, it is difficult because they are inexperienced. But if he keeps this focus, this attitude, he will improve from game to game,” the Dutchman said.
Garnacho turned up late to breakfast during United’s pre-season tour of Asia in 2022 and Ten Hag, who was on a mission to raise standards at the club, dropped him for the friendlies against Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Melbourne Victory and Aston Villa. He did not start him for a league game until the trip to Villa in November.
Garnacho took his punishment on the chin, however, and used it as a motivation to knuckle down. According to The Times, he asked the club to devise him a personalised training programme in order to build muscle mass, while he employed his own nutritionist.
Fernandes noted his improvement after Garnacho scored his first senior goal against Real Sociedad, declaring: “At the beginning of the season, he was not at his best. In the tour he didn’t have the best attitude that he should have, and that’s why he didn’t get his chances until now. He’s getting his chances because he’s training better, he’s got a different attitude and he’s deserving his chances.”
Rising to the occasion
Garnacho still had the reputation as a super-sub last season and was less effective when starting games. He had similar problems at the start of this season, as he put in poor displays against Wolves and Tottenham before reverting to his role as a substitute. Again, he worked on his weak points and made a huge improvement.
A year after he had highlighted Garnacho’s attitude problems, Fernandes praised him for how he had improved his overall play. It was two days after his outrageous bicycle kick against Everton, but the captain focused on the other aspects of the teenager’s game.
“He has that special talent for big moments to be decisive. But I’m more happy for his work off the ball against Everton – it was, for me, the best game he’s had until now, it was amazing,” Fernandes said. “I think when he can put that together with his qualities to score goals and help the team up front, he’s going to be such a good player. He’s already a great player, but I think for his age and for his talent, he can be much better than he is actually already.”
Garnacho has now started the last 25 matches in all competitions and is the only player to have been named in every matchday squad. Only Andre Onana, Fernandes, Diogo Dalot and Rashford have played more Premier League minutes than him for United this season.
Since his acrobatic goal against Everton, Garnacho has scored six more times and keeps rising to the occasion. When United were trailing 2-0 at home to Villa, he led the fightback to win 3-2 with two goals. He scored twice more in the 3-0 win over West Ham and was United’s top performer in the 2-1 win against Chelsea, setting up Scott McTominay’s winner.
Can United match his ambition?
Head of academy Cox described Garnacho as “obsessed with football” and could tell from the first time he spoke with him on a video call that the winger “knew that he wanted to be the best footballer he could possibly be and would have gone to any length to do that.”
Considering what he has achieved in the last 18 months, there are plenty of reasons to believe that Garnacho could go on to be one of the best players in the world and a contender for the Ballon d’Or within three or four years. His ambition has no ceiling, so can United match it?
A player of his quality and mentality deserves to be playing in Champions League finals and winning league titles, and at the moment United cannot come close to offering him that. Ten Hag’s side finished bottom of their Champions League group and their chances of qualifying for next year’s expanded competition are fading fast, as they trail fourth-placed Villa by eight points.
Within the last five years, United have played far more games in the Europa League (33) than the Champions League (18), and they are on track for more Thursday night football next season. Garnacho deserves to not just be playing in the Champions League, but fighting to win it.
The lure of Madrid
United had to fend off other clubs to sign Garnacho, but they had the advantage that he was 16 and not widely known. Now his fame is growing and so is interest in him. So what would the club do if, say, Real Madrid wanted to sign him? Despite playing for Atletico, it is no secret that Garnacho is a Madrid fan and idolised Ronaldo as a child. Indeed, he still does.
There has been no sign of interest from Madrid in the 19-year-old as they have focused on bringing in Jude Bellingham and now Kylian Mbappe. But if Garnacho keeps doing what he is doing, it cannot be long before Madrid begin their usual campaign, and newspapers such as Marca and AS start plastering him on their front pages and linking him with Madrid.
Paris Saint-Germain can’t be ruled out as a possible destination, either, not least because they will soon need a successor to Mbappe, while Bayern Munich will always offer a guarantee of qualifying for the latter stages of the Champions League and domestic silverware (present season not withstanding).
Will he wait for United’s resurgence?
United are still one of the biggest clubs in the world in stature and support, but they are no longer challenging for trophies and are absent from the big international competitions. It should not be forgotten that they will not be taking part in the revamped FIFA Club World Cup in 2025.
The club does have new impetus from INEOS after years of stagnation and there is a plan to put United back in their former position. But new minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe has admitted that it will take time, emphasising that the club needs to “walk to the right solution, not run to the wrong one”.
Ratcliffe estimated that it could take three years before United are fighting to win another league title. But given the terrifying rate Garnacho is progressing at, will he be willing to wait that long?
Global stars like Bellingham and Erling Haaland turned down the chance to join United while the club were not even in the conversation for Mbappe. Garnacho is on his way to the same level, and United need to make sure they can improve at the same rate. Otherwise, they risk losing him.
