Angel Gomes has been told he must make his own luck and forced his way into the Manchester United first team.
The teenager ended speculation over his future this week by signing his first professional deal at Old Trafford.
He is now hoping to follow in the footsteps of Marcus Rashford, who took his chance under Louis van Gaal, reports the Manchester Evening News.
“It’s easy to map out pathways but, ultimately, they make their own pathway," academy chief Nicky Butt told MUTV .
They can always do well, go into different teams and blow it up straight away in the first five or six games and go on to the next one.
“Some people go straight in the first team like Marcus [Rashford] and some people have three or four years in the reserves like Tom Cleverley.
“Some mature quicker than others – some are men at 16 and some at 23, so it’s difficult to map an outline of a pathway as it’s up to the boy and how he does on the stepping stones along the way.”
Until then Butt has a plan drawn up for the midfielder, who has been at the club since the age of six.
He has big a future, but he still has a long way to go,” Butt added.
“It’s not a case of signing the contract and going straight into the first team. To be honest, 90 per cent of the reason he made his debut were the circumstances regarding the following game [the Europa League final against Ajax], but it was a big pat on the back for what he’d done so far.
“He’s a bright lad and he knows he has got a long way to go to stamp his authority in the first team. He needs to get in the reserves, settle in there, become a dominant player at reserve-team level and step up.
“We try to push them as fast as we can now and stretch all the young lads. The youth team can become maybe a little too easy, so you push them on to the Reserves and see how it affects them in the transition period.
"We have the Under-19s in between and he can always drop down into the youth team when big games come along that are challenging for the club and for him."