Man Utd confirm James Garner and five other considered possible loan exits

Manchester United have confirmed midfielder James Garner is among the six young players they are considering loaning out for next season.

Reports over the weekend claimed Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea City were keen on taking Garner on loan and MEN Sport understands there is substantial Championship interest in the youngster.

Others who are being lined up for possible loan moves include Dylan Levitt, Ethan Laird and Ethan Galbraith, though United Under-23s boss Neil Wood insisted that loan talks are yet to take place.

Wood will discuss the club's plans with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and head of first team development Nicky Butt in the coming weeks.

"There's quite a few players in that group from the 23s this season that would benefit from going out on loan," Wood said in an exclusive interview with MEN Sport.

"It's something that will be assessed when we return, because a lot of league clubs are on shutdown as well at this moment in time. So there's not much movement, not many talks going on at the moment. But yeah there's five or six of them that I think are ready to push on - and it depends if the first team want them to be part of their squad, or if it seems better for them to go out on loan.

"It's something that all the staff will map out, the best for each individual player."

Aidan Barlow, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Ethan Hamilton, George Tanner and Kieran O'Hara were the Under-23 players United allowed to leave on loan last summer. The club favoured a policy of keeping the bulk of their young players together in a fairly small squad.

Wood added: "Especially this season, the core [Under-23] squad has been small numbers - eight or nine as a core squad. We've topped that up with players from the 18s and at times from guys coming down from the first team: Angel [Gomes], Chongy [Tahith Chong].

"It depends next year what position we're in, in terms of numbers, with players coming up. There's a lot of variables that will go into deciding who goes on loan."

Wood believes Garner, who scored nine goals in 12 Under-23s appearances in 2019/20, is ready to step up to a higher level.

United turned down the opportunity to send the 19-year-old out on loan in the January, but it appears likely that Garner will join a Championship side on a temporary basis for next term.

Wood said: "Jimmy's added goals to his game, he's getting into forward positions a lot more and his goal-scoring record for the 23s has been really good this season.

"But he also can be a defensive midfielder as well, he can break up the play, intercept and he reads the game very well.

"So we want him to marry those two things together and that's his challenge: to keep the attacking side and show that consistency and if he does that, he'll be a very good player."