Ryan Giggs has warned JJ Gabriel that walking away from Manchester United now would be a needless gamble, telling the teenager to bide his time rather than push for a January move to Real Madrid.
Gabriel asked the Old Trafford club to release him in September and has not trained at Carrington since. The 16-year-old, named the Premier League’s Under-18 player of the season last term, has a verbal agreement with Real Madrid and is training in Spain while the final details are worked through, subject to FIFA rules on minors.
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Giggs, the most decorated player in Manchester United’s history, was asked about the standoff in a sit-down with former teammate Rio Ferdinand. Speaking on Rio Ferdinand Presents, he said:
“So far in his career everything is going fine, why would you disrupt that? You’re on the right track. I trained at 15, I didn’t play for the first team until two years later so you have to have that patience that people just don’t seem to have at the moment.”
He then added:
“And believe it or not, first-team football for Man United is completely different to playing in the youth team, playing pre-season for the first team, it’s completely different. That first game, yeah, you might do alright, but you have to do it for 40, 50 games a season. You’re going to get injuries, loss of form, bad results, so you have to be patient. If you’re on the right trajectory then just bide your time, no matter how good you are.”
The example Giggs reached for was Arsenal’s Max Dowman, given a senior debut at 15 in August 2025 and still managed carefully rather than handed a regular starting place. That is close to the path Manchester United had mapped out for Gabriel.
Why has JJ Gabriel decided to leave Manchester United?
His camp submitted a deregistration request to Manchester United in mid-September, frustrated at the pace of his promotion. They wanted him in the squad for the Champions League tie against Sabah, the Carabao Cup tie against Brighton and a Premier League game against Bournemouth. Manchester United had planned to give him his debut against Brighton, which would have made him the club’s youngest-ever player. He played eight minutes as a substitute against Atletico Madrid in pre-season.
United will only be entitled to training compensation, reported at between £100,000 and £300,000 by the Manchester Evening News, and Sky Sports has reported that the club would consider legal action against any European side that signs him while he remains registered.
Edited by Vignesh Raja
