Chido Obi has not made a senior appearance this season, but Man Utd staff retain belief in the promising young striker.

12:00, 02 Apr 2026

Manchester United fans couldn’t get enough of Chido Obi last season. The young striker was heralded as a future star and the buzz increased when he outshone Rasmus Hojlund in a handful of cameos.

Obi stole the show during the post-season tour in Hong Kong and started the summer’s opening pre-season game in Stockholm, but there were signs of potential and greenness in equal amounts.

By the end of the summer, United decided it was best for Obi to stay in the academy. “I think there was obviously a conscious decision at the start of the season from the club for Chido to concentrate his development in the academy environment,” Adam Lawrence said.

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“I do think that has been a good thing for him on the whole. Sometimes players are accelerated into the first team because they have good potential. Chido is a high-potential player, of course.

“But I think at the back end of last year, the first team were light in that area of the pitch. That then means that some of it is a little bit of necessity. But he has got real quality and potential as well.”

The Manchester Evening News spoke to Lawrence for his first external media interview in 2023, and were invited to speak to the academy coach again following his return to manage the Under-21s.

The conversation with Lawrence at Carrington was dominated by questions about Obi, who has made a single Premier League squad this season after making eight first-team appearances last term.

Obi felt like he was on the cusp of a permanent breakthrough and gained further encouragement when he started in Stockholm last summer. Ruben Amorim started him over Hojlund that afternoon, but he was brought back down to earth when the plan to give him more time to develop in the academy was communicated.

Just as the season got underway, there was a hint of frustration when Obi removed United from his Instagram bio, but it was soon restored, and he reacted positively to the disappointment on the pitch.

“Chido loves football. He definitely loves football,” said Lawrence. “Naturally with any player, when you’ve had that first-team exposure, and then you have that bit where you’re not around it as often, that’s going to have an impact on your short-term.

“It will impact the way you see things, or a bit of disappointment or frustration. But I think credit to Chido again because he has thought ‘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’.”

Lawrence is uniquely positioned to provide insight because he has spent plenty of time coaching Obi. Lawrence was Under-18 manager when Obi arrived from Arsenal, and the pair have rekindled their relationship since Lawrence returned to the club in January.

“I think what Chido has benefited from of late is just routine, the rhythm and a settled programme,” he said. “Although he’s been going between the U18s and U21s, his training week roughly looks the same.

“He’s got the same people working with him, similar groups of players. I think he’s someone who’s benefited from the consistency and rhythm. Obviously, the concussion against Chelsea was a freak accident.

“It was a real setback for him because in the weeks previous to that, he looked really, really good. Chido at his best, I would say, in a couple of the U18s games, one was against City, and then he had another standout performance, and he looked a level above for the U21s against Leicester.”

The MEN reported that United staff were delighted with Obi’s performance in the U18 Manchester derby, believing his off-the-ball display was among his finest of the season.

“He pressed intensely and led the line, looking like a proper player,” Lawrence said. “That’s what we want him to look like consistently. Of late, he’s had more training opportunities with the first team. He has been over there two or three times.”

The feedback from Travis Binnion, who stepped up from his position as U21 manager to work in Michael Carrick’s backroom staff, on Obi’s performances in first-team training has been good.

“Trav has been positive on the whole, just in terms of his mentality, his energy within training sessions,” said Lawrence. “Naturally, first-team training will challenge him in different ways and give him those different challenges, which is obviously really good for him.”

United have laid out an individual development plan for Obi, as they do for every academy player, which Lawrence said is “clear in terms of what we’re going after for the individual parts of his game”.

Obi has benefited from developing away from the spotlight. “I think the good thing for him to understand is that [improvement] is from how he’s been training and performing at the academy level,” said Lawrence.

“He’s one of those players you try to have little and often conversations with. I like him because he’s really open and honest when he speaks to us, you know, that coach and player relationship.

“And he’s in a good place at the moment. I think he’s making good progress, and he’s training and playing with a smile on his face, which is massive.”

Lawrence continued: “I think the other message that we get across to the players is you don’t get this time back, this development period where you sit in between the academy and the first team.

“Once you get into the first team, you’re expected to perform every game. You’re put under a microscope in terms of how much publicity is around it. There is an expectancy around the U18-U21 age groups, but they’re still getting developmental work. It’s a more protected environment.

“We’re working really hard, not just with Chido, but with all the players in this period, to get them to understand you don’t get these years back. We want players to stay in the first team, not just go into the first team. Our job is to help them prepare to reach that level.”

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Obi has scored 15 goals in 24 appearances for the academy this season. His goalscoring rate has reduced (he scored 15 goals in 19 academy games last term), but his overall displays have improved.

That hasn’t stopped constant shouts of “Chido!” from the touchline during matches. “When a coach is tough on players, or they spend more time with them, it means that they really, really believe in the player,” said Lawrence.

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

“I think the brilliant thing that Chido has got is, you know, between Travis [Binnion], 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.

“And then, obviously, the player has got to turn up every day, or more often than not, hungry to develop, hungry to improve. We’re pushing Chido. We want him to go up levels and keep improving.”

Michael Carrick has cast his eye over Obi in first-team training. Carrick inherited a team not in Europe and already out of the cup competitions, which has limited opportunities for young players, but Obi will get a chance to show what he can do during pre-season again this summer.

“Personally, I think the club were right to do what they did in the window just gone. I think it was the right time for Chido to stay in the building to get some rhythm, some consistency,” said Lawrence.

“And then ultimately his level of progression and performance will dictate what happens in the summer. I think for Chido it’s maximising between now and the end of the season, all the opportunities that he’s going to get.

“Pre-season is when the first-team staff will look at players and then decide what is best for them. We’re trying to prepare every player for the first-team environment. If he made that much progress or he got to that stage, then obviously the first team would make that decision.

“A lot can happen between now and pre-season. It’s probably not an easy one to answer in black and white, but there’s definitely going to be opportunities there for him. It would just be where his game is at that specific time to dictate what happens next.”

Obi threatened a breakthrough last summer. This summer, he could genuinely achieve it.

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Lawrence spoke to the MEN ahead of next week’s U21 game against Real Madrid in the Premier League International Cup quarter-final.

You can buy tickets for the fixture at Old Trafford here.