'Man Utd told me I'd work at McDonalds or cost them £100m when they released me'
Manchester United's academy coaches once looked at Callum Gribbin as their brightest light but he was eventually let go when he was 20 - with a clear message from Nicky Butt
by Samuel Meade · The MirrorCallum Gribbin was the next best thing at Manchester United once upon a time.
The club's academy has been a conveyor belt of talent for years, but few get the chance to prove themselves and even fewer actually become a first-team regular. Gribbin was oncee tipped as the next cab off the rank with several of his youth team coaches lauding him and his ability.
Now though he finds himself playing for FC United of Manchester, operating in the seventh tier of English football. Once upon a time he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Marcus Rashford, but their careers took very different paths.
It was 2019 when Gribbin was eventually told that his dream of playing for the Manchester outfit were all but over. He had just turned 20 back then and it was former academy chief Nicky Butt who broke the news that there would be no new contract put on the table.
He recalled the conversation he had with Butt and told the Athletic his parting message: “Prove us wrong. You’ll either end up working at McDonald’s or we’ll buy you back for £100million.”
As a kid Gribbin could see Old Trafford from his window and had the love for the game that most children do. Now though, after some tough experiences, he sees the game through a different lens and understands why plenty struggle to maintain that love.
He said: “I definitely see football differently now. As a kid, I just loved it. Then you get older and you realise it’s ruthless and not as you imagined when you were growing up. I can understand why so many people fall out of love with it. I’ve not gone through that myself – I don’t think I have ever fallen out of love with it. But you do have this distaste for it sometimes because there are parts of the game that are cruel.”
Gribbin's story, with the benefit of hindsight, is one of those we've heard before. An immensely talented prodigy who didn't quite understand the gift he'd been given. As a result he leaned on raw ability, thinking it would take him further than it did.
He admits: “I have to take some responsibility and say, when I was younger, I didn’t handle myself in the best way. I let myself down massively at times. Towards the end of my time at United, I was difficult. I wasn’t getting a chance in the first team and I was unhappy about it. I went into self-destruct and started getting up to the wrong things away from football.
“I was immature and, because I was so talented, I think I relied on it. I abused it over the years. I relied on my talent getting me through all the time. So I do think I needed the lesson of getting released. I have grown up so much. Looking back, I see it completely different now from how I did at the time.”
Four years after leaving the Red Devils and finding himself having a non-league career Gribbin was hit with a horrific injury. He ruptured his knee ligaments during a game against Warrington Town in January 2023 and suddenly his career sat on a knife's edge.
A top club would've dealt with the operation and all the rehab, such are their resources. For part-time clubs it is a different story.
He had to apply for funding from the PFA to pay for the career-saving surgery. The operation cost £7,500 and, in the end, the PFA agreed to stump up half after huge amounts of stress and paperwork. The other half came from his non-league outfit, who set up an online fundraiser asking for donations.
“If you’re at a top club and you’ve done your knee, you’re looked after in-house,” he said. “The club will take care of everything and you don’t need to worry about anything other than getting fit again. When you’re at the bottom, though, it’s nothing like that.”
Gribbin looks back on his time at United and felt that, with Louis van Gaal at the helm, pathways for the youngsters existed. His successor Jose Mourinho though didn't quite give off the same vibe and that rattled the young hopeful.
He said: “I used to think, ‘He’s not arsed, is he? He doesn’t even care about getting to know my name’. I look back now and I know I shouldn’t have got pissed off about it. But at the time, it used to get to me that I’d go out for training and he wouldn’t even watch.
“If I did say something to anyone, he’d be looking at me like, ‘You can’t be having a go, you’re an 18-year-old training with the first team’. But in my head, I was thinking, ‘No, I want to get a chance here’. So there were a few issues with Mourinho and other staff. Little things, just building up.”
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