Newcastle great Lee Clark has revealed how frustrated he was that promising youngster Shola Shoretire joined Manchester United six years ago.
Teenage forward Shoretire has shone at United since he joining the club as a 10-year-old from Newcastle in 2014, and made his debut for the club's U23 side against Leicester last week.
Shoretire rose to initial fame when he made his Uefa Youth League bow at the age of 14 years and 314 days two seasons ago, and he was rewarded with a new long-term deal earlier this year.
United's head of first-team development Nicky Butt included Shoretire in the academy's pre-season tour squad that travelled to Austria in 2018 when he was only 14, with the rest of the squad mainly made up of U18 and U23 players, including James Wilson and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson.
Shoretire has been rewarded for his move down to Manchester six years ago, but Newcastle great Clark admits his exciting development is a constant reminder of his own club's transfer regret.
"I've watched Shola Shoretire when my son Bobby has been down at the academy at Newcastle and played against Man United in the years above," Clark told Tribal Football.
"Shola is an unbelievable young talent with fantastic ability. Great pace, great movement. He made his debut this week for the U23s having just turned 16. He's not the biggest but he's powerful and I know the people at United are excited.
"But what they do at United is they don't go overboard officially about players, they keep it in house and under wraps. But they will know they've got a special young talent in their hands without a doubt.
"At first when I heard about him a couple of years ago, I was initially frustrated that Newcastle lost out on one of their own, but it was a scenario that couldn't be helped with his parents being offered jobs down in the Manchester area which they had to take. Unfortunately there's nothing Newcastle could have done about that."
