Chido Obi has experienced a meteoric rise throughout his career, but this season has introduced him to a dose of reality.

At just 18 years old, Obi transitioned from Arsenal to Manchester United in 2024, lured by the promise of a more direct route to the first team. The financial incentive was equally appealing.

In his debut for United’s Under-18 squad, Obi showcased his talent by netting a hat-trick against Nottingham Forest. A few months later, he stepped onto the field for his senior debut in a match against Tottenham.

With mentorship from first-team players like Joshua Zirkzee and Patrick Dorgu, many young talents in Obi’s shoes might have felt they had already reached their goal.

However, the coaching staff at United saw things differently. Some questioned his off-pitch demeanor, while others believed that the expectations placed on such a young forward were excessive, especially amid the team’s ongoing transitions.

Chido Obi burst onto the scene as Manchester United’s newest superstar, but is now struggling for minutes in the first team

Instead of diving headfirst into first-team action, this season has been about Obi stepping back to hone his skills away from the limelight. He will remain absent from senior team duties until further notice.

‘I do think that has been a good thing for him on the whole,’ Under 21s boss Adam Lawrence, speaking for the first time since returning to the club, explained.

‘Naturally, with any player when you’ve had that first team exposure and then you spend a bit of time around the first team when you then have that bit where you’re not around it as often, naturally that’s going to have an impact on your short term, the way you see things or that bit of disappointment or frustration.

‘But I think credit to Chido. What he’s obviously done over this period is he’s gone, “this is the situation that I’m in. This is what I’m working towards to help take my game to the next level and then I’m going to go after it.”

‘So that is the bit between now and the end of the season that he needs to continue to focus on.

‘But I think he deserves some credit in terms of approaching it in that way and going after those things because, yes, you’ve seen players go the other way.’

United staff have incredibly high hopes for Obi – who has been receiving national headlines ever since he scored 10 goals in a single game versus Liverpool back in 2023.

But they have also expressed privately that there is plenty to work on and that if he is to realise that potential at United, glossing over valuable development years would bite them.

Too often last season he did not show enough willingness to lead the press from the front and there have been countless academy matches attended by Daily Mail Sport where Lawrence, who coached Obi last year as Under 18s boss, or Travis Binnion, or current 18s manager Darren Fletcher, have been barking at him to show more intensity.

In recent months the noticeable shift in effort and on-pitch intelligence underscored why tough love was the right tactic for the teen, who has 15 goals and counting this season.

One Under 18s game away to Manchester City, which was the moment momentum in the title race really swung in United’s favour, was the talk of coaches in the aftermath, such was the impression he made that day in front of first team boss Michael Carrick.

For the Under 21s, he scored all four in a 4-1 win over Leicester City and by plugging in consistently high level performances he has managed to restore himself into the first team’s thinking, recently returning to their training group in the past fortnight.

‘When a coach is tough on players or they spend more time with them, it means that they really, really believe in the player, even when it can be challenging,’ Lawrence said.

At the age of 17 years, 156 days Obi became the youngest player to start a Premier League game for United away at Brentford last May

Obi hasn’t made a senior appearance this season and is now developing out of the spotlight

‘It’s a bit like, you know, with your child. There’s times where you’re going to be really supportive and you need to put your arm around them and there’s other times where you need to give them a nudge and they need to stand on their own two feet.

‘I think the difficulty about coaching and managing people is that everybody’s different. So you might have your blanket principles around how you manage the group and expectancies and behaviours, etcetera.

‘But then there’ll be individuals that respond differently in different ways that you then have to find a way and a connection.

‘I think the brilliant thing that Chido has got is, between Travis, Darren Fletcher, Colin Little, all the coaches working with him, he’s got a group of people that really believe in his potential and are working really hard to help him fulfil that.

‘Listen, we’re pushing Chido, we’re challenging Chido. We want him to go up levels and keep improving… He’s definitely in a good place at the moment.’

For Obi, who has seen first team involvement this season limited to being an unused substitute against Wolves, there is still the prospect of winning a quadruple: the Under-18 Premier League, the FA Youth Cup, the Premier League International Cup, and Premier League 2.

It was one of the reasons why the club were so keen to rebuff any loan offers in January, confident that their Individual Player Performance Plan (IPPP), coupled with the silverware available and the stability that staying at Carrington provides, was the best long term play.

‘I like him because he’s really open and honest when he speaks to us,’ Lawrence adds, revealing feedback from Binnion, Obi’s former Under 21s coach and now part of Carrick’s first team staff, has been extremely positive on the player’s ‘mentality’.

‘I think he’s making good progress and he’s training and playing with a smile on his face, which is massive.’

Under-21s boss belives Obi deserves ‘credit’ for how he has dealt with the sudden lack of game time in the first team

Back in December, Ruben Amorim was not mincing his words when it came to ‘entitlement’ in the academy, but one thing he did say rings true pertinently in the case of Obi.

‘Sometimes strong words are not bad words,’ Amorim explained. ‘Sometimes difficult moments are not a bad thing for the kids.

‘We don’t need to be always with accolades in everything, in every situation. We are not helping…’

He’s not wrong. That’s why the unpopular approach United staff took by holding Obi back for a season was so good.

Obi has developed – and is continuing to improve – into a better player than the one who made his senior debut down at Tottenham Hotspur. That player, physically, technically and mentally, wasn’t ready to make a meaningful impact on the first team.

The version Carrick and his staff are getting now is in a far better place and so Amorim was right, difficult moments are not a bad thing after all.

The Under 21s take on Real Madrid Castilla at Old Trafford on Tuesday, April 7. Ticket details here.