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OWEN TO LEAVE UNITED
Owen Hargreaves is reportedly set to leave Manchester United after failing to recover from a long-standing injury. No fewer than six senior players are expected to leave United at the end of the season, with Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville, Owen Hargreaves, Tomasz Kuszczak, Michael Owen and Wes Brown all likely to move on, either through retirement or a lack of first-team opportunities.
With doubts also hovering over the Man Utd futures of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, the United squad which starts the 2011-12 campaign could be the most youthful since Ferguson replaced Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis with emerging stars such as Neville, Scholes, David Beckham and Nicky Butt in the summer of 1995.
While Giggs, who will mark the 20th anniversary of his United debut in March, and Scholes are expected to be offered one-year contracts to keep them at the club next season, Ferguson now believes his emerging players, supported by the likes of Nemanja Vidic, Wayne Rooney and Darren Fletcher, are ready to make the breakthrough.