No young U.S. player has received more time under the microscope in the last few weeks than D.C. United’s Freddy Adu. The 17-year old arrived in Manchester two weeks ago for a two-week training session at Manchester United’s world-famous Carrington training ground. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson was duly impressed with the youngster’s trial, though he admitted that Adu is still too young to be signed by the club. “Freddy has done all right,” said Ferguson. “He is a talented boy. He’ll go back to the U.S. and we’ll keep a check on him. When he is 18, we will have to assess what we can do next.” English law prohibits foreign players from receiving a work permit in England until they are at least 18. D.C. United consented to let Adu travel to England to train with the Red Devils, but Coach Peter Nowak warned the player against jumping at any offer the Old Trafford club might make. Instead he said Freddy needed to move to a more technical league like the Netherlands’ Eredivisie, where he would likely receive more playing time. “What we did was to bring him here to give him an idea of what United was like so he could see the place and see how comfortable he was with it,” said Ferguson. “He is a very confident and good, young boy but there is nothing we can do about him.” Adu turns 18 next year.