Tom Thorpe thanks Manchester United fans and staff in heartwarming goodbye message

Tom Thorpe has sent a heartfelt goodbye message to Manchester United fans having been released by the club.

Louis van Gaal decided not to offer Thorpe a new contract and the 22-year-old ends a six-year affiliation with Man United having joined in 2009.

In his message to fans, Thorpe makes it abundantly clear what his primary career goal was and still is: to play for United. Yet, after captaining the 2011 FA Youth Cup winning team, as well as the U21s to three titles in the last four years, Thorpe was never given a proper opportunity with the first-team.

Instead, Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett were given chances ahead of him which is something I won’t ever be able to get my head around because, at the time, Thorpe was far more deserving of those opportunities:

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the United fans that have sent me messages of support over the last season. They have all asked the same question and all I can say is it is not for the want of trying;. My ambition has and will always be, to play for Manchester United. I believe I have displayed, on a regular basis, the qualities expected of its players by this great club and naturally I am disappointed that our association has come to an end. That association however has afforded me expressions of interest from several other clubs including inquiries from abroad. However no matter where my football career takes me I will continue to work as hard as humanly possible to improve the prospects of the club I play for. I will always remain grateful to United for the fantastic coaching I have received and for the success we have experienced in the academy over the last 15 years. I would like to thank; Mark Dempsey, Paul McGuinness and I would especially like to thank Warren Joyce for his guidance, encouragement and inspirational coaching techniques – I think even Coach Carter consults him! Whoever I play for, they will have a player brought up the United way! Thanks for everything.

A photo posted by Thorpe (@tomthorpe93) on Jun 12, 2015 at 6:03am PDT

Good luck in your career, Tom. You should have been given a better platform to progress at United but unfortunately it didn’t work out. Hopefully you can find more success elsewhere.