When Ruben Amorim came to call his starters in the Hotel Hotel on Friday evening, there was little surprise among the players to see the name of 18-year-old Harry Amass on the board.
Amass was not told in advance, nor Amorim pulled him aside for a private conversation to go to the Premier League his first start ever. No, Amass was treated, just like the rest of the dressing room. It was a sign for insiders of how well he did to be part of the furniture.
Teammates thought that the full debut of Amass would be the entire Premier League debut.
Mail Sport understands that Diogo Dalot held a long debrief after one training session last week with collection to discuss his game and share information, since he plays the same wing-back role.
Harry Maguire too, a former captain and a key figure in the United dressing room, pulled aside a few days ago for a chat to tell him that the team had the feeling that he was coming at his first start. His hard work did not go under the radar.
Mason Mount is another who has a particularly good relationship with Amass, not least with both originally from London. As a source put it, those three senior players have been 'invaluable' in recent months to gather the dressing room integration.
Sunday's outing in Newcastle, where he got 55 minutes to become the fourth youngest player in club history to start a Premier League match, only behind Mason Greenwood, Federico Macheda and Phil Neville, was also positive. He kept himself more than his own in a discouraging match against Jacob Murphy, one of the form players of the division at the moment.
But this has not been a trip to his first Premier League start without bumps on the road.
The last few months have been a challenge because Amass took its way into the plans of a new head coach in Amorim, who initially prepared another academy defender in Godwill Kukonki in his early training sessions.
Amass had been a fixture in the sessions of Erik ten Hag and was taken on the American pre-season tour where he seemed in the midst of a period of great uncertainty at management level.
He seemed to find out when playing, only for the Dutch manager to keep too many doubts about his physicality to actually hand him his debut before he was added by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the United Hierarchy in October.
Many in Amass' Inner Circle were convinced that he would have played in the Community Shield at the start of the campaign, only to be completely overlooked when he missed the bank.
His name never even appeared on the back of the MatchDay program. After seeing his very extensive family to that game, it represented a real setback.
There were fears among some that this season could reflect the last where Amass would be able to break into the first team training, but not the team, a frustrating halfway house for a young player.
His family, Mama and in particular make regularly travel to the north to view him and they did this many times at the end of last year when he oscillated between the youngsters under the age of 18 and under 21 years.
After a certain Premier League International Cup match was held in Altrincham in January, where he was the striking player of United in a 3-1 defeat, there was a lot of encouragement that had broadcast his way to trust the process.
However, Amass is strong, and insiders at United are so impressed by both his work ethics and his resilience prior to his league debut to Leicester and his first start of the competition at Newcastle.
“He finished his socks in the gym,” said a source, adding that it was not easy for him to add muscles and at the same time stay lean with limited minutes.
'You can just see the difference from a year ago. He has worked so hard and the boys have really warmed him up in recent weeks. '
Freedom is a word that came up several times when he talked about Amass with insiders.
It was a characteristic that attracted the attention of England during a recent camp under the age of 18 where the side of the side of the side was in a 1-0 win in Portugal.
“Wow” was the reaction of many observers that day, “said a source in that game. “It was just clear that he had gone to a new level since the last camp.”
Amass impressed by the FA staff so much on that journey that boss under the age of 18 has submitted a personal call to Manchester United to lyrical washing for maturity, leadership and its development.
His time on experienced players such as Maguire and Dalot, among other things, is credited to his growing adulthood. Just like the responsibility he had to take since he left the house to live in Manchester with a handful of other Academy stars in Digs.
The club has routinely created various workshops, including cooking lessons, to prepare Academy players for life away from the field, where fans do not see the growing pines of navigating through life as a young adult.
Elyh Harrison, one of his best friends in the Academy setup, as well as Chido Obi, are among his housemates and with all three in and around the first team group it was said that the trio has been a great source for each other.
“I am happy that Harry, his family and everyone who has worked with him, including the boys from Watford who worked with him before he came to us,” Academy director Nick Cox recently told Mail Sport.
'We talked about what a great monument it is [making your debut]But there is still a long way to go.
'He had to be patient, but I am really impressed by the determination, the resilience and the perseverance to keep learning.
'He spent time with the first team and then back to the youth team. He continues to work, continued to improve and was ready for when the moment comes. '
Stephen Ajwolle, a head Explorer in Manchester United for southern England and the man who collected in Watford, is reserved as a key figure for collection, such as under-21 Manager Travis Binnion.
Adam Lawrence under the age of 18 is another who has had the opportunity to help improve the game in recent seasons and it was gone to Arsenal in a recent FA Youth Cup Quarter Final where you saw that Lawrence Lawrence had in collection to help the group guidance over the line while had a victory in extra time.
So when the decision was made, Amass should not be allowed to perform in the semi -final of the Youth Cup against Aston Villa because it was necessary on the bank for the first team in Nottingham Forest the next day, there was disappointment.
But among the first team group it was just a sign of how strong staff judges him. His mentality and his self -confidence both loved him by the dressing room and have left a lasting impression on coaches in club and country.
What happens next remains in the air.
There was the prospect that he could have left loan in January, but it was stated that Mail Sport was that Amass was convinced that he could fight for his place and break through in the first team. His decision is now completely justified.
Diego Leon, who plays the same left-wing-back role, will come out of Paraguay in the summer and United has signed the 20-year-old Patrick Dorgu for the same position of Lecce from Lecce from January.
Amass is a 'brutal chapy' personality of a family of very hard-working East East in London and self-confidence is not something that he has in the shorts when it comes to beating the competition, even now as a teenager at the start of a senior career in the game.
He said it best last summer – when only 17 – when he was pressed when he was ready for the fierce lights of the first team football in a club the size of Manchester United.
“I think if you're good enough, you know, the age doesn't matter,” he said. “It is a big famous quote. If you are good enough, you are old enough. So I think that is what United stands for. Age does not matter in this game.
“You just have to show your aggressive side – you may be young, smaller than the opponent, but you have to show that you are aggressive and not back down.”
In the Leeuwenhol that St James' park is, Amass showed that he is good for the fight, just like Amorim and his staff predicted that he would be.
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