So Angel Gomes is leaving when his contract expires tonight. 

I remember hearing about him in recent years and I was present at the game when he made his debut – the Crystal Palace game at the end of the 2016/17 season which marked twenty five years since we played them in the FA Youth Cup. The club marked the occasion by honouring Nobby Stiles and Eric Harrison.

Gomes was one of the kids given a chance that day as it was the last game of the season. I remember people saying he would be the next youth player to burst on to the scene but since then he’s had a few appearances and not really had a chance or contributed very much. 

He’s talented. That much is obvious. But it’s also obvious, in my opinion, that he needs to move on because he just isn’t going to get a game in that number ten role any time soon.

So I’m sure he’ll have a good career and I wish him well. I hope he is able to make the step up because youth football is so different to a man’s game and he is so small.

Angel won’t be the only young player facing questions about his future. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has given chances to the kids but he also now has an established first choice and that means the likes of Ethan Laird and James Garner might be asking questions about how often they’ll get opportunities. 

Again they’ve impressed beyond the first team but when those senior chances come you have to grab it and make the most of it. I can sympathise with Ethan in particular because he plays in my position. It’s a difficult time – I think both of them need at least to go out on loan and get the chance to play every week. When you’re 17 or 18 playing U23 football every week is fine, but when you get to 19 or 20, it can be damaging. You get to a point where you leave it too long. I did. My advice would be to go out and get that experience as soon as you can, and make your impression that way. I really like Garner – he’s composed and has an eye for goal. He needs the chance to kick on.

I’ve spoke in the past about ‘Ole’s blind spots’ and those are the players who are not young enough to be described as promising and not established enough to be considered genuine squad players. In his early days at the club there was so much transition and so many injuries to contend with that it was understandable to see those players in the team even if you felt they hadn’t earned their spot.

Now, though, as we saw last week, you have to wonder if those players should be in the squad, never mind the first eleven. 

Part of the persistence is United’s tradition of playing youth players. Times have changed. The brutal fact is our local rivals are better than us now and they don’t use many youth products in their team. They buy experience and world class talent.

You can see the light at the end of the tunnel of something being built. You can see what Ole is trying to do. The question is, is he good enough to do it? Can he be a good enough coach to get United to overtake Liverpool? We don’t know, and the jury will be out at least until he wins something.

One thing we surely know for certain is that a settled side is going to be paramount, especially in the defence and midfield. I don’t know if he made the changes at the weekend to keep players happy but United have to be in the business of winning and not keeping players happy. I felt it backfired at the weekend because the squad isn’t strong enough to chop and change. Rest two or three players, win the game early and make all those changes. But the rhythm of the game was fractured because of the number of changes and it looked like a bunch of individuals rather than a team again.

There was a lot of pressure on Bruno to win the game by himself and in the end he ran himself into the ground. You can’t fault his desire to win but I think it was his poorest game for the club. I hope playing the full game on Saturday won’t backfire tonight but one thing you won’t ever say about Bruno is that he isn’t a fighter.

In my last column I talked about signing an experienced striker. It was great to see Anthony Martial get his hat-trick but still good to hear Ole saying that we need to improve in that area. He can see we’re missing a natural number nine. Gary Neville reckons we need just one player to be challenging – in my opinion we’re probably missing 4 or 5 players if we want to really be back at the top.

Hopefully all of those changes made at the weekend will help us tonight. If we start with that front six – Matic, Pogba, Bruno, Greenwood, Martial Rashford – I think that would be too much for Brighton. I just hope that Ole does go that attacking.

Against Bournemouth at the weekend we should expect an open game as they do like to attack. That should play into United’s hands. Hopefully last Saturday’s game will be a reminder that every game from now until the end of the season should be played like a Cup Final and not a pre-season game, because of how much is riding on it for United.