Man Utd’s new box-to-box menace is Kobbie Mainoo’s future partner in crime
If you’re up to date on your transfer news—if you’ve got Ornsteinian tendencies or a touch of the Romanos about you, you may have noticed that Manchester United signed an 18-year-old midfielder in the dying embers of the transfer window.
You’re probably wondering what on earth is so groundbreaking about that, given that United are already way too overreliant on one teenager in their midfield bailing them out week after week.
That might be correct, but walk with us, because it’s the stuff Football Manager dreams are made of.
A wonderkid plucked from relative obscurity in West Africa, signed for a tiny fee in the hope that he might grow to be your midfield general. Yes, please!
Sekou Kone was snapped up from Guidars FC in Mali in relatively quiet fashion, although it is believed the Red Devils beat competition from rival sides to secure his services and plan for him to have a big future with the side.
Our research tells us Kone is 5’9″ but, if that’s true, he plays like a much taller person. He likes to beat a man before he does anything else, he likes to play a line-breaking pass, and he likes to drive forward with the ball.
Crucially, he appears to have an immensely high ceiling and his profile aligns with exactly what United are after in their midfield in the coming years.
Let’s have a closer look at Kone before we go any further, shall we?
He’s gangly, isn’t he? He looks gangly, rangy, a big strider.
Kone also seems solid defensively, however. A real all-rounder, actually—a box-to-box midfielder who can break up play and turn defence into attack rapidly. We think Kone may well have been signed with an eye to him, one day, partnering Kobbie Mainoo in midfield as the perfect foil to Kobbie’s cool technical quality and awareness.
But don’t get it twisted – the Malian is a very different player to Mainoo.
More physical, more dynamic, more of a disrupter and a line-breaker. Mainoo gives us Xavi vibes, Kone is more Vieira. African media outlets have compared Kone to Yaya Toure, but from what we’ve seen, he’s a little more defensive-minded and less devastating in the final third, but there’s time for that yet.
The plan appears to be to ease the young Malian into life in England. The MEN’s Chief Manchester United Reporter Samuel Luckhurst recently provided insight on the club’s plans for the teenager, crucially stating that United aren’t considering him an academy signing.
“[Kone] will initially train with U18s to adjust to life in England but first appearance for club due to be with U21s before he eventually transitions to the first team squad.”
To be fair, if you’ve just moved from West Africa to north west England, you’re going to want a few months to get used to the weather, let alone the culture or the football.
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United finally appear to have some sense of clarity behind the scenes—something that has been missing for some time now. The MEN reported: “The cooperation between sporting director Dan Ashworth and Ten Hag is said to be ‘excellent’, with hierarchical figures and manager aligned on incomings and outgoings.”
It’s this feeling of clarity and joined-up thinking that Ashworth brought to Newcastle United before his serpentine head was turned Manchesterward. Now, it seems that Manchester United are benefitting from hissssss influence.
We’re unlikely to see Kone in the first team this season. United have signed Manuel Ugarte around the same time the Malian signed on the dotted line.
You’d imagine Kobbie, Ugarte, and Bruno Fernandes have that midfield on lock for the foreseeable, and then there’s still Casemiro, Christian Eriksen, and Mason Mount to deal with, but Sekou Kone is being set up to succeed at Old Trafford, make no mistake about it.
In a year or two, you can revisit this article and remind yourself of how spot-on we were about the teenager’s raw talents. Until then, let Kone cook in the youth teams, waiting for his chance to step up to the plate.
By Andrew Martin