Welcome to the first edition of this season's Manchester United academy notebook.

The Manchester Evening News provide more coverage of United's academy than any other outlet and we experimented by publishing an academy notebook last season.

We waited for the academy football to get fully underway in 2024/25 to bring it back, and we will bring our readers the notebook each week now it's been relaunched.

The notebook will include the latest academy information in digestible chunks and provide insight that can't be found anywhere else, so look out for the article every Thursday.

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Without further ado, here is a round-up of the latest news from the club's youth set-up...

Lusale and Overy are unveiled

The MEN revealed in June that James Overy had accepted a scholarship deal at the club, but academy signings are subject to red tape and approval was only received this month.

Samuel Lusale was in the same boat as Overy and the young pair were forced to be patient for Premier League and FA approval for their summer moves to Manchester.

Thankfully, they are now officially United players and they attended Carrington this week for their signing ceremonies, which saw them pose with their deals in the Jimmy Murphy Building.

Overy, who is a right-back, caught the eye playing for Perth Glory's senior side in a pre-season friendly against West Ham last summer and Lusale was highly regarded at Crystal Palace - he is a winger and played in Slovakia's three group games at the Under-17 European Championship.

They have joined as first-year scholars and will join up with the Under-18 squad, who are looking to defend their league title after sauntering to success last season.

The latest on Obi-Martin

United weren't expecting any problems with the approval of Overy and Lusale and fans can relax in the knowledge the same can be applied to the incoming Chido Obi-Martin.

There is particular excitement about the signing of prolific youth striker Obi-Martin from Arsenal and the youngster's move is being considered a significant coup by academy staff.

As of this week, a source said United are still waiting on ratification for Obi-Martin, but an agreement was struck in July and he should be confirmed sooner rather than later.

U21s come back again

United started their EFL Trophy campaign by beating Barnsley 3-2, despite going 2-0 down, last month and they made another comeback against Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night.

The likes of Harry Amass, Ethan Wheatley, Sam Mather and Ethan Ennis started and the youngsters managed to draw 3-3, despite trailing by two goals with 20 minutes to play.

Mather scored the first goal, Ennis fired in the second and Louis Jackson scored the equaliser with the last kick of the game, somehow turning the ball in amid mayhem from a corner.

Goalkeeper Dermot Mee came up for the corner and assisted Jackson, which added to the moment, and United are top of their EFL Trophy group after winning an extra point in that game by winning the subsequent penalty shootout (the competition has interesting rules).

Gore makes his return

It was brilliant to see Dan Gore back in the Under-21 squad against Doncaster on Tuesday. Gore had last played a competitive fixture on loan with Port Value on January 27 and he understandably looked as if he'd improve from getting some much-needed minutes in his legs.

Gore captained the side and will attempt to back up to speed in the coming weeks before his situation is assessed in the January window as it's likely he will be loaned again.

It's easy to forget how much progress Gore has made - he made his senior debut in September last year - because he's not been seen on a pitch for so long. He's got the talent to make up for lost time and will make academy games worth following from now until the winter window.

It was unfortunate that he suffered a freak shoulder injury in the summer but he's back on track.

MUTV survey sent out

I thought it was worth highlighting again that it's worth checking your emails if you subscribe to MUTV and care about academy coverage, as a survey was sent out last week.

United's in-house coverage has been impacted by job losses, which are intended to streamline the organisation, and that has meant some academy fixtures haven't been broadcast live.

Angry supporters have expressed their disappointment at the changes on social media and they have been given the chance to explain how they feel in a survey sent via email.

If you care about the changes, use your voice and respond to the survey because it doesn't take long.