Manchester United prodigy Ethan Laird has explained how wanting to be in a "winning changing room" led to him joining Queen Park Rangers on loan.
The 21-year-old right-back, who sparingly featured for the Red Devils in pre-season under new manager Erik ten Hag, has escaped the current chaos at Old Trafford to link up with the Shepherd's Bush side. Laird had reportedly been set to sign for Watford for the duration of the 2022-23 campaign before a deal collapsed, leading him to Loftus Road.
Once the season-long loan deal was confirmed on Monday, the former MK Dons, Swansea City and Bournemouth loanee was asked by QPR's website what elements he looks for when choosing a new club. "You want love and care," Laird declared in a telling response. "Winning changing rooms need to have a real care for the players and I feel like on the pitch you will get the best from your players if they know they are going to be cared for. Another thing I look for is creativity – and it is in abundance here!"
The Basingstoke-born youngster follows fellow full-back Alvaro Fernandez to the Championship, with his Spanish teammate joining Preston North End in July amidst a busy summer transfer window for United on Ten Hag's watch. Laird, who'll wear the number 27 shirt in west London, hopes to help Michael Beale's side improve on their poor start to the campaign - winning one of their first four games - and return to Manchester next summer with a season of first-team football under his belt.
"Sometimes you don't want to come out of your comfort zone but you only become your best self when you do," the starlet, who signed a long-term contract with the Red Devils in February 2020, went on. "You only find out what you are really like when you play football.
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"Coming up against 6ft 5in players, coming up against beasts, you find ways to adapt and I feel like I have adapted well wherever I have gone and I am ready to kick on now. The fans and ourselves should believe we can do something this season. For me personally, I just want to kick on and I feel I am at the perfect place to do that now."
United are keen on shifting a number of players before transfer deadline day on September 1, with midfield starlet James Garner surprisingly one of them. Multiple reports state that Ten Hag and co would be open to letting go of the highly rated 21-year-old playmaker on a permanent for around £14m, despite a lack of midfielders who're capable of progressing the ball.
Garner is wanted by ex-loan club Nottingham Forest and Everton among others, with Tottenham Hotspur also monitoring him.
