The evolution of Chido Obi at Manchester United: How the younger striker is dealing with a scarcity of minutes within the first-team, why some workers have a dim view of him, and why he deserves ‘credit score’ for his development

For a player who has only ever seen his career follow an incredibly steep incline, this campaign has been something of a reality check for Chido Obi.

The teenager – yes, he’s still only 18 – arrived at Manchester United from Arsenal in 2024 armed with the belief that a clearer pathway existed through to the first team. Financially it was a compelling offer, too.

On his first start for United’s Under 18s he scored a hat-trick versus Nottingham Forest, and a couple of months later he made his senior debut, coming on away at Tottenham.

He’d also go on to be play 90 minutes away at Brentford – at the age of 17 years, 156 days, he became the youngest player to start a Premier League game for United – as part of eight senior appearances before the season was out.

Having been taken under the wing in the first team dressing room by Joshua Zirkzee and Patrick Dorgu, most youngsters in his position would similarly have felt like they’d made it.

Only, staff at United took a different view. Some took a dim view of how he carried himself off the pitch on occasion. Others felt the gap was unfairly big for a striker so young to bridge while the first team found itself in such a state of flux.

Rather than continue to find his feet in the deep end that is the first team, this campaign was about taking a step back and developing out of the spotlight. He would play no part with the first team until further notice.

‘I do think that has been a good thing for him on the whole,’ Under 21s boss Adam Lawrence, speaking for the first time since returning to the club, explained.

‘Naturally, with any player when you’ve had that first team exposure and then you spend a bit of time around the first team when you then have that bit where you’re not around it as often, naturally that’s going to have an impact on your short term, the way you see things or that bit of disappointment or frustration.

‘But I think credit to Chido. What he’s obviously done over this period is he’s gone, “this is the situation that I’m in. This is what I’m working towards to help take my game to the next level and then I’m going to go after it.”

‘So that is the bit between now and the end of the season that he needs to continue to focus on.

‘But I think he deserves some credit in terms of approaching it in that way and going after those things because, yes, you’ve seen players go the other way.’

United staff have incredibly high hopes for Obi – who has been receiving national headlines ever since he scored 10 goals in a single game versus Liverpool back in 2023.

But they have also expressed privately that there is plenty to work on and that if he is to realise that potential at United, glossing over valuable development years would bite them.

Too often last season he did not show enough willingness to lead the press from the front and there have been countless academy matches attended by Daily Mail Sport where Lawrence, who coached Obi last year as Under 18s boss, or Travis Binnion, or current 18s manager Darren Fletcher, have been barking at him to show more intensity.

In recent months the noticeable shift in effort and on-pitch intelligence underscored why tough love was the right tactic for the teen, who has 15 goals and counting this season.

One Under 18s game away to Manchester City, which was the moment momentum in the title race really swung in United’s favour, was the talk of coaches in the aftermath, such was the impression he made that day in front of first team boss Michael Carrick.

For the Under 21s, he scored all four in a 4-1 win over Leicester City and by plugging in consistently high level performances he has managed to restore himself into the first team’s thinking, recently returning to their training group in the past fortnight.

‘When a coach is tough on players or they spend more time with them, it means that they really, really believe in the player, even when it can be challenging,’ Lawrence said.

‘It’s a bit like, you know, with your child. There’s times where you’re going to be really supportive and you need to put your arm around them and there’s other times where you need to give them a nudge and they need to stand on their own two feet.

‘I think the difficulty about coaching and managing people is that everybody’s different. So you might have your blanket principles around how you manage the group and expectancies and behaviours, etcetera.

‘But then there’ll be individuals that respond differently in different ways that you then have to find a way and a connection.

‘I think the brilliant thing that Chido has got is, between Travis, Darren Fletcher, Colin Little, all the coaches working with him, he’s got a group of people that really believe in his potential and are working really hard to help him fulfil that.

‘Listen, we’re pushing Chido, we’re challenging Chido. We want him to go up levels and keep improving… He’s definitely in a good place at the moment.’

For Obi, who has seen first team involvement this season limited to being an unused substitute against Wolves, there is still the prospect of winning a quadruple: the Under-18 Premier League, the FA Youth Cup, the Premier League International Cup, and Premier League 2.

It was one of the reasons why the club were so keen to rebuff any loan offers in January, confident that their Individual Player Performance Plan (IPPP), coupled with the silverware available and the stability that staying at Carrington provides, was the best long term play.

‘I like him because he’s really open and honest when he speaks to us,’ Lawrence adds, revealing feedback from Binnion, Obi’s former Under 21s coach and now part of Carrick’s first team staff, has been extremely positive on the player’s ‘mentality’.

‘I think he’s making good progress and he’s training and playing with a smile on his face, which is massive.’

Back in December, Ruben Amorim was not mincing his words when it came to ‘entitlement’ in the academy, but one thing he did say rings true pertinently in the case of Obi.

‘Sometimes strong words are not bad words,’ Amorim explained. ‘Sometimes difficult moments are not a bad thing for the kids.

‘We don’t need to be always with accolades in everything, in every situation. We are not helping…’

He’s not wrong. That’s why the unpopular approach United staff took by holding Obi back for a season was so good.

Obi has developed – and is continuing to improve – into a better player than the one who made his senior debut down at Tottenham Hotspur. That player, physically, technically and mentally, wasn’t ready to make a meaningful impact on the first team.

The version Carrick and his staff are getting now is in a far better place and so Amorim was right, difficult moments are not a bad thing after all.

The Under 21s take on Real Madrid Castilla at Old Trafford on Tuesday, April 7. Ticket details here.