Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has told supporters not to expect new signing Facundo Pellistri to be an instant first-team player at Manchester United after he completed a move from Uruguayan side Penarol.

The 18-year-old forward joined United for a fee of around £9m on deadline day after being recommended to Solskjaer by Red Devils cult hero Diego Forlan.

Given his young age, it may take some time before Pellistri is able to establish himself as a regular at Old Trafford.

And speaking to United’s official website, Solskjaer insisted the player would be given time to develop.

“He’s a young boy coming from Uruguay,” Solskjaer said. “He’s a signing in the tradition of what we do here which is to bring young players in and let them grow and develop and become the player they can be.

“Of course we’ll give him time. He’s more one for the future than now, but he’s exciting and he’s shown some things in training that we don’t really have here. I’m looking forward to helping him develop and helping him settle.”

Forlan himself has recently spoken of his excitement at seeing how his prodigy gets on in Manchester.

He told South China Morning Post : “He likes receiving the ball in midfield and moving forward with it. Even though he was young, I put him in my team every week.

“He can play on the right but also the left. He’s two-footed like I was and he tries to dribble like Ryan Giggs.”

“I told Ole he has a lot of potential, but he has to keep developing. I told Facundo many times: ‘There are not players like you in Uruguay, but if you go to Europe, which attracts the best in the world, there will be many others who are very fast – and stronger than you too. You have potential but it depends on you to improve.’”

source:- fcnaija