'Mum and dad are happy for me to get the opportunity to play against them'

SCOTT McTominay and Angel Gomes are the most celebrated academy debutants under Jose Mourinho at United but they were not the first two names on his lips.

- By SAMUEL LUCKHURST

In one of Mourinho’s first chats as United manager, he namechecked another future graduate, Axel Tuanzebe, who could come up against his former club with Burnley on Saturday.

The other is poised to play against United for Grimsby Town tonight.

“I think I should be playing,” Tyrell Warren says, hopefully.

Warren was part of Mourinho’s first training squad at United back in July 2016. The right-back was 17 at the time and yet to make his first start for the Under 21s.

“It was mad, to be fair, it was crazy,” Warren says over the phone.

“I didn’t really expect it. I came back from summer and (academy head) Nicky Butt said I was with the first team, which I was a bit surprised with. But I just had to go out and train and show what I can do.”

Mourinho suggested Warren would travel to Wigan Athletic for his first match in charge, a preseason friendly. Ultimately, there was no space for Warren on the bench at the DW Stadium. His memories of training under Mourinho and Rui Faria are still vivid.

“It was good, I enjoyed it,” he recalled. “It was about two weeks before the first game against Wigan but I learnt a lot from Mourinho and the players, the tempo of training, how hard you're training. And I just took that back to the youth team and tried to do that in the training sessions with them.”

Mancunian Warren, now 26, spent 14 years in the United academy.