Manchester United, a club once famed for promoting youth, has taken a different stance ever since Ruben Amorim took charge last year.
Amorim isn’t just refusing to promote youngsters and give debuts to new blood, but he has also sold (Rashford, Garnacho, Kambwala, etc.) or relegated already established first-teamers who broke through the academy previously, to the bench.
One such player is Kobbie Mainoo. The dynamic midfielder was given his debut by previous manager Erik Ten Hag in 2023 and he became a fixture in the first team, delivering 2 assists and 7 goals, with the most pivotal one coming in the 2024 FA Cup final.
Since Amorim took over, it has been an entirely different story for Mainoo. He has found gametime hard to come by as he only gets cameo appearances every now and then.
Mainoo played 72 games under Ten Hag has only managed 12 appearances under Amorim. While has stayed silent for most part although there have been murmurs that he’s looking to leave Manchester United in search of regular gametime.
Amorim has repeatedly defended his decision not to pick Mainoo, but things took an ugly turn this weekend as he threw Kobbie and other academy players under the bus. He called out the academy players for not being good enough in training and not capitalizing on opportunities.
The situation went from bad to worse as Kobbie’s brother Jordan showed up at Manchester United’s match against Bournemouth in a “Free Kobbie Mainoo” t-shirt.
Jordan Mainoo-Hames, who is Kobbie’s half-brother, is a popular reality TV star, best known for his time on hit reality show “Love Island”, was sitting in the crowd wearing a black t-shirt with “Free Kobbie Mainoo” printed in white.
After the match, he also posted a photo of himself in that shirt on Instagram.
Kobbie Mainoo's brother on IG: pic.twitter.com/hzLfqw4Pzb
— UtdDistrict (@UtdDistrict) December 15, 2025
As with everything involving Manchester United, the reception was mixed. While the majority were fuming at Kobbie for what his brother did, others had sympathy for him and tried to defend him that perhaps he didn’t know what his brother was going to do.
While fans did have sympathy for the midfielder, the support quickly turned into suspicion that something shady was going on.
Eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed that there was a monetary angle involved and the same T-shirt was being sold on the internet after the match, leading some to wonder if this was done without Kobbie’s knowledge.
Do you SEE what I mean people.
— Dylan (@Dylyano) December 16, 2025
It’s not an orchestrated move by Mainoo’s team – it’s a publicity stunt and cash grab using his name. https://t.co/WmskcWi5fM pic.twitter.com/RtP8pLUHjw
In fact, some fans were claiming that in the hours leading up to the match, the shirt was being advertised all over Instagram, so this might have been a publicity stunt.
Several online stores like Mason-Grey Collective and NowBestShirt have since started selling the T-shirt, pricing it at between £19.95 to £22.99. In Manchester, after the match, the shirt was being sold/given away for free.
— 🗻 (@malrkay) December 15, 2025
Tottenham fan and popular YouTuber Expressions Oozing may have accidentally deciphered the whole incident on his YouTube channel.
In the latest episode of Bants Spoortz Ooz, Expressions revealed that he went to West9Prints on Sunday to get a black T-shirt made with “The Most Shameless Man On YouTube”, and there he saw a big box full of “Free Kobbie Mainoo” T-shirts prepared to be picked up and shipped to Mainoo’s brother.
Kobbie’s involvement in this stunt isn’t known yet, but most fans are convinced that it is unlikely to do him any favors when it comes to gametime.
