Kobbie Mainoo admits he considered leaving Manchester United when Ruben Amorim froze him out but says his priority was always to stay at Old Trafford.
Amorim's refusal to find a place for Mainoo in his much-maligned 3-4-2-1 formation sparked concerns United would lose one of their most gifted academy graduates, less than two years on from the midfielder scoring the winner in the FA Cup final against Manchester City.
Mainoo had a request to leave United on loan rejected in the final week of last summer's transfer window but was not given a single Premier League start by Amorim, before he was sacked in January and replaced by Michael Carrick until the end of the season.
Carrick has restored Mainoo to the central role he enjoyed under Erik ten Hag when he broke through at United and the 21-year-old has subsequently earned an England recall after rediscovering his best form and signed a new contract at his boyhood club.
Asked how close he came to leaving, Mainoo told Your Site: "When you're not playing many games, or any games, you consider all things.
"But at the forefront of my mind was always to play for Manchester United and continue to play for this club that I've grown up at."
Amorim insisted he rated Mainoo but said he was only suited to the role Bruno Fernandes, United's ever-present captain, occupied in his system, which is why the midfielder continued to be omitted.
Asked if he felt Amorim left him out because he did not see him as a fit for his system, Mainoo said: "Yeah, when there's new managers, they have their way that they want to play and if they think you don't fit that, then you don't fit that.
"All I can do is try and work and train to maybe see it in a different light."
Mainoo said it was a hard time for him under Amorim, but he leaned on experienced figures in the United squad like Casemiro and Fernandes, as well as his close friend Joshua Zirkzee.
"Going from playing nearly every game to not playing as often is always going to be a difficult adjustment," Mainoo added. "It was good for me in terms of learning [about] myself, the game, and patience.
"How to schedule my life and how I train and how I work and getting into routines."
He added: "It's difficult when you don't even come on as a sub of course. But I'd say my family and my friends helped me see the light at the end of the tunnel. They knew it would swing back my way at some point, so I just had to be patient."
Carrick immediately reinstated Mainoo as a starter when he took over and he has only missed out on a team selection once since the former United midfielder returned to Old Trafford.
United have won 10 of the 15 games since Carrick has taken charge and sealed qualification to next season's Champions League, with just one point required from their final two games to clinch third spot.
Carrick's contract only runs until the end of the season, but
"He's just helped with everything. On the pitch, he's played the same position as me, so just giving me tips and advice on what to do and even just his management of me as a person, asking about family and stuff."
Pressed on Carrick's man-management, Mainoo added: "Just talking to you like a person, it's not just business.That definitely helps as a player when a coach can see the other side of the game, which obviously he can because he's been there and he's been in that position.
"You can believe everything that he says because he's been there and he's played for this club. He knows what comes on the football pitch, he knows what happens off it, playing for a club like this. Everything he says is a gem, really."
England boss Thomas Tuchel called up Mainoo for the first time since he was appointed in March for friendlies against Uruguay and Japan, when he named an extended squad in the final get-together before his World Cup squad announcement on May 22.
But despite being reintroduced to the national team, Mainoo is far from satisfied and is instead setting his sights on continued development with the Three Lions.
"Happy, not too happy, you know. If you get too happy, then you rest but just trying to be consistent and work with the coach, to keep pushing forward with the boss and with Steve Holland, I just want more," he said.
"After these last two games, it'll probably be number one [priority], but for now it's out of my control. What I can control is how I play in these last two [games], so I've just got to keep on pushing and then whatever happens happens."
