Freddy Adu, the much-hyped American teenager, begins a two-week trial with Manchester United this morning, with Sir Alex Ferguson as eager as anyone to find out whether the precocious youngster can disprove the theory that his is a case of much Adu about nothing.

The trial has come as a surprise, not only because Adu has performed relatively poorly in Major League Soccer (MLS) this season for DC United, but also because Chelsea all but finalised a £5 million deal to sign him in February.

What is clear is that Chelsea’s interest has cooled in view of the 17-year-old’s struggle to live up to his promise and that Ferguson, the United manager, and his staff are regarding the prodigy’s arrival at Old Trafford with greater caution than they might have done two years ago, when he was considered the next big thing in world football.

It remains to be seen whether Adu will be allowed to train with United’s first-team squad, who travel to Glasgow this evening to prepare for tomorrow’s Champions League match against Celtic, but he is unlikely to be indulged as the star he has been from the moment he made his MLS debut at 14. Although his whereabouts yesterday were not known, United had been leaning towards the idea of him staying in digs with other young players rather than in a top hotel, as he might have expected.

Adu talked enthusiastically last week about his hopes for the trial — which DC United, his club, continue to describe as an “additional training opportunity in the off-season”, rather than the precursor to a transfer — but his prospects are far from certain. Although Ferguson confirmed his interest a fortnight ago — after the club had initially issued a denial of reports that Adu was heading for Manchester — it is felt that he will have to make an enormous impression to be offered a contract immediately. Even then, there would be work-permit complications that would be likely to delay any deal until he turns 18 in June.

Already a full international for the United States, Adu, who was born in Ghana, has long been regarded as the first American soccer superstar, but even his most ardent admirers are unsure whether he has what it takes to impress Ferguson, let alone to succeed in England in the longer term.

“I think if he’d like to go, (he should) go to some place where he’s not only going to play but also develop in the right way, the right environment,” Peter Nowak, the DC United head coach, said last week. “I don’t think the clubs with the highest budget in the world will wait for Freddy to develop because they can buy another player for $20 million or $30 million. They can do that.

“If you like it, you will play. If you don’t like it, they’re going to buy another. But my thing is, the guys who really develop young kids in the right way are the Dutch league and some of the Spanish league. Because it’s more technical instead of being hard — the English league is very hard, and as I said, there are guys that cost $20 million sitting on the bench. They just don’t care.”

SALE TALKS

RICK PARRY, THE Liverpool chief executive, will meet his board this week to discuss the latest proposal by a series of potential investors, which are led by George Gillett, the American billionaire.

Gillett, the owner of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club, is understood to have met Parry and David Moores, the Liverpool chairman, in the past fortnight with a view to investing up to £450 million in the Merseyside club.

Other interested parties include Dubai International Capital, the private equity arm of the Arab state, and John Miskelly, the Belfast-based property billionaire.

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