Alvaro Fernandez learning a lot from challenging loan spell at Preston North End

Fernandez first moved to United as a callow 17-year-old in 2020 and had to navigate a tricky situation off the pitch, as he sought to impress at his new club.

The country was in the midst of the Covid pandemic and he couldn’t speak the language or regularly travel back to Spain to visit his family.

It’s clear this period greatly helped Fernandez to acclimatise to his new surroundings, though, and his season-long spell at PNE – although only a short drive away from Manchester – will only improve the adaptation further.

“At the beginning, when I came here to England, I was in digs with an English family. It was very good from them, that they helped me start to speak English. You always have to learn something new, but now I can speak it better!

“The first year I could only go back at Christmas and summer, so it was hard to come to a new place and a new culture, with a new football team as well. It was hard, but the people have always been good to me in England.”