Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says that midfielder Grace Clinton is likely to leave the club on loan this month.
The 19-year-old joined The Red Devils from their Barclays Women’s Super League rivals Everton in the summer transfer window.
Clinton is a highly-rated young player but she is yet to make her debut for Manchester United. Rumours have been gathering pace in recent weeks over a potential loan move for the teenager and head coach Skinner this afternoon confirmed his intention to allow the player to get some minutes under her belt with another club in the second half of the season.
“Everybody knows how I feel about Grace, she is definitely going to be what we are looking for in the future,” Skinner said when speaking in a Manchester United press conference. “Her vision, her brain, the way I want people to play, she has it all.
“What we need to do in this window is to potentially send her out on loan because we are looking for her to get consistent minutes and we can’t give her that at the moment. We asked her in the first six months to learn our principles and our expectations so that she takes that out for the second half of the season if she hadn’t played as much.
“Our plan was always there with Grace and it is likely that she will go out in this window on loan but only if she can get that game time so that she can put into practice what she can do.”
Clinton is one of a number of talented young players on Manchester United’s books. Skinner went on to say that he has been pleased with the application of the young players and that each one will be developed on an individual basis.
He said “I’ve been impressed with Jess Simpson as well, Keira Barry who we are going to continue to develop, Alyssa Aherne who we are going to continue to work with and Saf (Middleton-Patel) in goal.
“We are going to continue the wonderful Manchester United tradition of bringing youth through but we are going to try and build them all with an individual plan. Grace’s (plan) in this window will probably look like a loan out so that she can play consistent minutes.”
Manchester United return to action after the mid-season break with a Barclays Women’s Super League fixture against Liverpool at the Leigh Sports Village on Sunday.
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