Jack Fletcher was named on the Manchester United bench for the first time on Saturday.
Fletcher was born in March 2007, near the end of the season in which Sir Alex Ferguson led United to win what would become the first of three successive Premier League titles. His father, Darren Fletcher, made 342 appearances for United after breaking into the first-team from the academy and Jack is hopeful of following in his dad’s footsteps.
Darren Fletcher was never a star in Ferguson’s squads but he was robust and effective. He won every trophy possible in club football during his time at Old Trafford before leaving for West Brom in 2015 and returning to United in a coaching capacity in October 2020 following retirement.
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The Fletcher twins, Darren’s only children, started their careers at Manchester City’s academy but both made the move to United in the summer of 2023 for a combined fee of £1.25million. Jack and Tyler Fletcher spent nine years with City and it’s thought the blue side of Manchester reacted to their departures by signing Harrison Parker from United for a fee of around £700,000, a switch that United felt was a “revenge move” for signing the Fletcher brothers.
There is no doubt City would have been irked to some extent by the Fletcher twins joining United and there are always politics at play when youngsters change academies as teens. However, United didn’t sign Jack and Tyler Fletcher to rub City up the wrong way or because their dad works for the club, they signed the pair because they had first-team potential.
Tyler Fletcher has been unfortunate with injury since joining the club and his progress has been stalled, but Jack has had a clear run and it was great to see him on the bench at the weekend.
Being named in a first-team squad is an important milestone for any youngster from the academy who has aspirations to make a United debut and it was deserved for Jack Fletcher. The 17-year-old has been involved in first-team training, which shows how highly regarded he is, and has performed brilliantly for the Under-21s.
He scored probably the finest goal of his career to date against Barnsley in the EFL Trophy in August when firing a half volley from 35 yards that dipped under the crossbar. The EFL Trophy pits academy teams against senior sides from down the football pyramid and if a youngster is excelling in those games, they are generally pushing toward the first-team.
Jack Fletcher has three goals and two assists in six academy appearances and he is an exciting, technically exceptional attacking midfielder, who is usually a strong creative influence. The youngster will be hungry to be involved in more first-team squads after making the bench against Brentford and the best is still come from him.
