A Manchester United starlet who has earned praise from Bruno Fernandes has explained his decision to head out on loan.
Ethan Wheatley's move to join League Two leaders Walsall until the end of the season was confirmed on Saturday, making his debut for the club just hours later as a second-half substitute during their 3-0 defeat at Bradford City. The 19-year-old was previously linked with a switch to either Ryan Reynolds ' Wrexham or their League One rivals Stockport County.
Meanwhile, Dutch second-tier side SC Cambuur were also connected with the striker last week by local media outlet the Leeuwarder Courant. The announcement he would be signing for Walsall was made after he registered four senior appearances for United and won the under-18s Premier League Cup in 2024.
Wheatley outlined his reasons for joining the fourth-tier outfit in an interview published on the official Walsall club website. The likelihood of receiving regular first-team minutes appeared to be the main determining factor.
He said: “It is my first loan so I am very excited to get going. The club is currently top of the league so I am coming into a winning environment and I am looking forward to that and hopefully we can kick on for the rest of the season and I can help the team to do good things.
“I had interest from other places but they didn’t have as many games left in the season and a big thing for me is earning game time and trying to play as much as possible in the men's game and hopefully I can do that and stamp my mark and impress.”
Last season, Wheatley became the 250th player from United's academy to make a senior bow at Old Trafford. He reached the major milestone when he was substituted onto the pitch in a 4-2 win against Sheffield United on April 24.
He later revealed that shortly before he came on, his team-mate Bruno Fernandes promised to provide him with an assist. The hot young talent was unfortunately unable to mark the occasion with a goal despite the best efforts of the United captain.
Wheatley told MUTV afterwards: "He (Fernandes) pulled me to the side and said, ‘I’ve got nine minutes to try to get you a goal.’ So I was just trying to get into positions for him, and obviously, it didn’t come, but hopefully soon." While he was unable to set the youngster up on that occasion, Fernandes backed Wheatley to score plenty of goals in his career.
He said: "I tried to give him a goal because he is a young kid coming through the academy; I know the moment is massive for him and getting a goal in his first appearance would be massive. I couldn’t give the assist for him but I tried, at the moment I rushed it a little bit too much. If he gets chances in the future he will get his goals too."