MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester United has been rocked by the news that one of its brightest prospects JJ Gabriel has asked to leave the club.
The 15-year-old youth player was the club’s Academy player of the year last season and is regarded as one of the hottest talents in his age group in Europe.
A person with knowledge of the situation said United was unclear why Gabriel wanted to leave and that the club remained hopeful the situation could be rectified.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Gabriel, who is a striker, was due to be included in United's first team squad for the first time in a competitive match in Wednesday’s English League Cup game against Brighton.
Just last week United greats Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand spoke of Gabriel as an immense talent.
“He’s off both feet, ridiculous, getting a yard and just bang. So small, so slight, doesn’t allow people to make contact,” Ferdinand said.
Giggs added: “I think he is sort of a generational talent.”
Gabriel was named the Under-18 Premier League player of the year last year, scoring 20 goals in just 21 appearances. He started this season with a bang, scoring a hat trick when making his Uefa Youth League debut against Sabah.
United is famed for developing homegrown talent like Giggs, David Beckham and Marcus Rashford.
Ferdinand and Giggs spoke before news of Gabriel's request to leave.
Speaking on Ferdinand's ‘The Debrief’ podcast, Giggs said the teenager was at “the best club because (of) the history of young players coming through and how they’re looked after.”
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
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Man United team huddles just prior to kick off of the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Manchester City in Manchester, England, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Hodgson)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday went after the Supreme Court after it rejected his push to restrict mail-in voting in this year’s midterms, saying justices who opposed him were “not the people I interviewed.”
His social media missive was just the latest in a long history of Trump assailing justices, particularly those he had nominated, who ruled against him on his administration's most prominent initiatives. The president has been publicly furious with the Supreme Court over its decisions against restricting birthright citizenship and his ability to issue tariffs unilaterally.
On mail-in voting, the Trump administration had made a last-minute push to have the U.S. Postal Service play a central role in deciding who would be able to receive a ballot. But state election officials argued there was not enough time to make the changes for the Nov. 3 midterm elections — and said their systems were already secure and accurate.
The court ruled late Monday in an emergency order that the restrictions would most likely lose in court, at least for this year’s election.
“The Court’s inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History,” Trump wrote in a lengthy social media post Tuesday. “This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years.”
Justices Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas publicly dissented from the order, and Trump on Tuesday called them “legends both.” Trump has nominated three of the justices on the Supreme Court — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” Trump said. He asserted that the court "is costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.”
The president has a lengthy track record of attacking judges, often very personally, who issue decisions that go against his wishes, and Trump has long viewed his legal appointments as owing loyalty to the person who nominated them to the bench.
So as Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch ruled against Trump at varying points over the years, the president has not hesitated to go after them publicly, while praising them if they sided with him in a case.
Yet this court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has ruled in favor of Trump on several of his priorities, most notably the 2024 decision from the court's conservative majority that said former presidents are presumptively entitled to immunity for all official acts. That paved the way for Trump to run for reelection without threat of a criminal trial that year.
Trump has opposed mail voting and falsely blamed it for his 2020 election loss. A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
Roughly a third of voters use mail ballots, and mail voting has already begun in some states. The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years.
On Tuesday, Trump also complained that the decision took too long to issue.
“It is not easy for me to write this criticism of the United States Supreme Court - it will likely cost me dearly for years to come - but I feel it my obligation and duty, as President, to do so for the America we love!” Trump said.
FILE - An election worker reaches for an unopened ballot during sorting at the Clackamas County Elections office, Nov. 7, 2024, in Oregon City, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to his limousine upon his arrival at the Ellipse just outside of the White House, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
