Preston North End secure Manchester United's Spanish starlet on loan

The Spaniard is the second signing in two days and the second on loan from the Premier League, after Troy Parrott joined the club from Tottenham Hotspur on Monday.

Fernandez, 19, was at Deepdale on Saturday to watch Ryan Lowe’s side play agaisnt Leicester City in a pre-season friendly and was there again on Monday during the club’s training session on their home pitch.

PNE boss Lowe had been working to convince the young wing back to choose to come to PR1 with plenty of other interest in him.

Speaking to the club about the move, he said: “I’m very happy, and I want to start with this club as soon as possible.

“I wanted to go on loan and start to play at a high level.

“I’ve spoken to the manager about the football, it’s so good. I like his plans for the season so I want to start.”

The acquisition of the left back now sorts out that side of the pitch for Lowe, who has spoken in recent weeks about the need for two players in that position this summer.

He was the U23s player of the year last season for United and was also named on the bench for the senior side towards the end of the last campaign.

Speaking about the signing, Lowe said: “Álvaro's one we’ve monitored and one who was brought to our attention through our chief scout James Wallace who’s watched him numerous times.

“Once we’d watched him a little bit more we felt he could do a job for us down that side as a left wing back.

“He’ll challenge Robbie [Brady] to start. Robbie’s got the quality in his left foot of picking passes out, and Álvaro's got different types of qualities in that he gets at people and he can get past them with high energy.

“He’s a fantastic asset to us. He’s going to be a fantastic football player for Manchester United, but we need Álvaro to help us in our Championship campaign for us to help him to hopefully one day make his Premier League debut for Manchester United.”