Manchester United have made improvements to their business model when it comes to selling young players recently, but there is little doubt at who is the one that got away.

Angel Gomes left Old Trafford for nothing in the summer of 2020, having become frustrated at attempts to build on a record-breaking debut. He struggled to get an answer as to a plan for his development and opted to leave when his contract expired, signing for Ligue 1 club Lille.

Four years on, Gomes is a full England international and a central midfielder coveted by clubs in the Premier League and beyond. Small in stature at just 5ft 6ins, Gomes has the skill and technical quality to control games from central midfield, a trait United have been badly missing in recent seasons.

Gomes looked like the future of United’s midfield when he made his debut in the Premier League at 16 years and 263 days old, becoming the club’s youngster player since 1953. Somehow, only nine more senior appearances followed before he gave up on his Old Trafford dream. In a recent interview with The Times, Gomes, who was born in London but raised in Salford, opened up about how his time at United came to an end.

“It was the most difficult period of my career. On the pitch, off the pitch, I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “I spoke to [Solskjaer]. I spoke to the assistants as well because Kieran McKenna had been my under-18s coach. It just felt like they wanted me to stay and go with the flow. They wanted me to go on loan but there wasn’t really much in place.

“I felt that after being there my whole life in the academy, there would have been more of a plan for me to progress. That was the hardest pill to swallow. In the last six months, I just wanted it to end really.”

End it did and after a successful loan spell with Boavista in Portugal, Gomes has now become a regular with Lille and impressed on his England debut after being called up by Lee Carsley. That elevation to senior international has come at a good time for Gomes but maybe a bad time for Lille. The 24-year-old is out of contract in the summer and likely to leave the Ligue 1 side, perhaps in January if they attempt to get a fee for him.

That opens the possibility of a return to United and a second chance for club and player to right the wrongs of 2020. There are plenty of shrewd judges who believe this is a move United can’t afford to pass up on.

Gomes would add something different to that midfield, bringing control to a deep-lying role in the way that Casemiro has struggled to do and Manuel Ugarte – more of a destructive holding midfielder – lacks the skillset to achieve. He also knows the club inside out, having first joined when he was just six.

Then there is the financial element to the move. Under the new football structure installed by Ineos, United are looking to be more astute and signing a player of Gomes’ quality on a free transfer will appeal, especially at a time when Premier League spending rules are beginning to bite and the club don’t have Champions League revenues.

But maybe the most appealing aspect of this deal is that Gomes would still count as a home-grown player under UEFA’s squad roles. When naming a 25-man squad for European competition, four of the eight slots for home-grown players must be filled by players reared at that club for three years before their 21st birthday.

That is an area United are a little tight on at the moment. In their Europa League squad this season, Tom Heaton, Dermot Mee, Jonny Evans and Marcus Rashford ticked that box. Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho will also fulfill the requirements, but were named on the B-list for players under the age of 21.

Heaton and Evans are both out of contract at the end of the season and edging closer to retirement, while Mee was included as fourth-choice goalkeeper. United could use added depth in this area, and Gomes would provide that.

As free transfers go, it makes plenty of sense to try and bring the midfielder back to the club. United would face plenty of competition if he was to leave Lille but his links to Old Trafford are strong, and Gomes might not be able to resist another go at making at his boyhood club.