A few Manchester United players have spent their entire careers at Old Trafford, but there are plenty who failed to leave a lasting impression.
It is an achievement just to represent their first team at all, of course, and more than most of us ever manage, but it is surprising how many have just one Premier League appearance to their name for United.
There are 22 in total, not including Alejandro Garnacho and Will Fish, who are still at the club and still have room to add to their tallies.
Josh Harrop
Harrop only made one first-team appearance for United, but it couldn’t have gone much better for him.
The winger scored on his debut against Crystal Palace in 2017 but then signed for Preston immediately afterwards, so he has an impressive one goal-per-game record at United.
Harrop has struggled with injuries over the last few years and is currently spending the second half of 2021-22 on loan at Fleetwood Town.
Another look at new signing Josh Harrop.
Here’s his debut goal for Manchester United vs Crystal Palace!👇🏼 #pnefc #mufc pic.twitter.com/0fxYVF9u69
— North End News (@DeepdaleTalk) June 23, 2017
Demetri Mitchell
Alongside Harrop, Mitchell also made his competitive United debut in that 2-0 win over Crystal Palace in 2017 as Jose Mourinho prepared for the Europa League final.
Despite being named United’s Reserve Player of the Year for 2017-18, he never made another first-team appearance for the club and was released in 2020.
The left-back spent two and a half years at Blackpool before joining Scottish club Hibernian in January 2022.
Joel Pereira
After coming off the bench in an FA Cup tie with Wigan, Pereira made his full United debut against Palace and managed to keep a clean sheet.
“We have a third goalkeeper that I think will be the best Portuguese goalkeeper of the next generation so anyone in goal I trust completely,” Mourinho said in May 2017.
He didn’t manage to live up to those expectations and had a series of loan spells before…