Former-City defender offered one month
United manager Graham Kavanagh confirmed today that a short term one-month contract was offered to former-Manchester City defender Courtney Meppen-Walter on Friday and that an answer is expected from the tall centre back and his representatives early next week.
“We have spoken to Courtney and we’re hoping that it’s all agreed,” he said. “There should be more news on that on Monday even though we haven’t had a definite yes off him yet.
“His agent has said that everything will be fine with what has been offered so it’s an opportunity for him to come and play some games. He has tremendous potential as a footballer and it’s now a case of us dragging that out of him.”
“We’ve seen a change in him in the short time he’s been with us already, but you’d expect that,” he continued. “He’s been out for 16 months, for all the reasons we know about, but I think he’s starting to enjoy the football side of things again. It isn’t a foregone conclusion that he’ll be here for a long period of time at all, but we’ve offered to take him for an initial one-month deal and we can see where things go from there, if he does actually sign.”
“I don’t think we’d look to get him involved in first team games too quickly,” he commented. “It’ll be one of those where we organise one or two games for him to play.
“That will help him in terms of where he is with coming back into the fold and it will let us get a good look at how he reacts during 90 minutes of play. There are a lot of areas of his game which aren’t up to speed at the moment but, what I will say, is that there is a lot which is really, really good.
“It’s now a case of seeing where he is with it all because you have to remember that he is only 19 years old. He has the tools to be a good centre half and we all have to keep working to make that the case. There is plenty in his favour in terms of the football side of things so, if he joins us, it’s up to him and us to develop it.
“I’m also hoping we can move one or two out in the coming months because the squad is very top heavy at the moment. The chairman and managing director have said that to me and I completely understand where they are coming from.
“We have one or two in the squad who want to play football so hopefully we’ll be able to look at sending them out on loan, or other options, so that we can get that for them. However, I come at it from a selfish point of view in that I do want to get the best players I possibly can for the team. We’ll keep doing our business in an attempt to make that happen.”