Man Utd are closely monitoring Kirsty Hanson’s form on loan

By Jaime Spencer

Manchester United are keeping tabs on winger Kirsty Hanson’s impressive performances during her loan spell at fellow WSL club Aston Villa.

Formerly a key player for United, as evidenced by his WSL Player of the Month award in October 2019, Hanson struggled for playing time last season. This led to a loan move to Villa at the start of the campaign and she is thriving once again.

The Scotland international, who remain under contract to United until 2024 with an option until 2025, reached seven WSL assists for the season in his most recent outing – a 2-1 win over West Ham. This ties her up with Ella Toone and Ona Batlle, with only Chelsea’s Guro Reiten (9) more.

Hanson’s recent form was also recognized with a nomination for February’s PFA Vertu Motors WSL Fans’ Player of the Month award.

Back at her parent club, manager Charlotte Healy has been tasked with monitoring all of United’s loan players, also including Carrie Jones at Leicester and Ivana Ferreira Fuso at Bayer Leverkusen.

‘Kirky’, as Hanson is affectionately known, has been impressive and the fact that she is consistently proving herself in numbers to rival the best in the league will only strengthen her case to be reinstated at United where she was initially a young squad player in the Center of Excellence.

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Having dropped to the suburbs, the 24-year-old then fell victim to renewed competition for attacking places last summer as four new strikers arrived in a transfer window. The reason for loaning her out was to secure the kind of consistent playing time not available in Manchester.

With the team as it is and United Aiming to enter the Champions League for the first time, manager Marc Skinner regretfully admits that “not everyone can play”.

“When you have someone as young and promising as Kirky, you want him to go and play minutes – he’s getting those minutes [at Villa]”, explained the United boss.

“The whole reason we sent Kirky out on loan was to get a point of view on how he plays consistent games again. Our ability to give her minutes consistent with his age just wasn’t there. I’m really happy with his progression. But I’m not surprised [by it].”

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This article was originally posted on 90min.com as Man Utd are closely monitoring Kirsty Hanson’s form on loan.