Jose: Youngsters Are Getting A Chance

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says the club's youth players are getting the chance to train with the first team squad on a regular basis.

Promising youngsters such as Tahith Chong and Angel Gomes have been training with the first team recently - following in the footsteps of Scott McTominay, who has stepped up to be part of Mourinho's squad and featured in 12 senior games so far this season.

Speaking in his press conference at the Aon Training Complex ahead of Saturday's Emirates FA Cup tie at Huddersfield Town, the boss was asked about whether players such as Chong and Gomes, who are performing well in the younger age groups, will get a chance to be promoted to the senior team.

"It depends what you mean by promotion," Jose said. "If, by promotion, you mean that they are training regularly with us, then they have been promoted for a long time.

"Scott McTominay didn’t arrive here from the moon. Before he came to the first team, he trained with us many times last season. He came with us in pre-season and then we realised that Andreas Pereira was leaving in the summer, so we decided: 'Okay, we are not going to sign another player, we have Scott McTominay ready to step up'."

The FA Cup fifth-round tie against the Terriers at the John Smith's Stadium could present another opportunity for a youngster to be a part of the first team, after 17-year-old starlet Gomes appeared as a substitute against Yeovil Town in the last round and received praise from Mourinho and captain Michael Carrick afterwards.

"Maybe I will have one of the kids on the bench," the boss said. "The objective of not having a squad that is too big is exactly to be open for this. For example, this week we didn't have a few players because of injuries and small things that I wanted to protect.

"All these kids, they trained with us. Not today [Friday] because they [the Under-23s] play today but, yesterday and before yesterday, they trained with us."