Academy Players

ukbob

Caf's Coolest Rag n Bone man
Joined
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All this talk about who we will sign and not sign along with all the other clubs in the world leads to the question of what has happened to all the academy players that were supposed to be coming through the system.
Where are the likes of Beckham,Scholes, The Nevilles, Butt, Giggs. Players that came through the Manchester United academy and then of course the greatest of them all Duncan Edwards.
I thought the academy was set up to precisely prevent us from having to compete in the transfer market all the time.
We now appear to be bidding for players in every position on the field.
 
Because we're desperate. It's easier to buy top class players than to trust our academy to bring us back into the top 4 places. Januzaj is the best product the academy has produced, which is why he's getting first team football.
 
There is a need to go out and buy some proven quality right now, it allows us to ship some of the deadwood which then facilitates the use of the younger players in rotation with already proven first teamers. It seems much more responsible for both player development and blancing our own success in the short term to have a player like Lingard come in for Di Maria or whoever then have them start from the off and have them backed up by Ashley Young.
 
Obviously it's always important for United especially to bring through youth players, give them a chance, and I think we'll keep on doing that with Van Gaal. We already have Januzaj who broke into the first team and will start his second professional season, James Wilson will get more chances in the first team, as will Michael Keane and Jesse Lingard I think and then we have players like Pereira, Pearson, Varela, etc., who maybe next season might be too soon. The thing is though, we've been buying average squad players for the most part for years now and our squad is littered with them. We desperately need to improve the starting 11 quality and that means buying 4-5 players for the starting 11 right away. I just hope we also sell a fair chunk of the squad players, like a few of the average wingers we have for Lingard to be a squad option, 1 of the strikers so Wilson gets more games, and Fellaini in midfield so we have less numbers but more quality overall.

Obviously if you have an exceptional talent, they'll break through and force their way into the starting 11. Januzaj was that exceptional talent, I'm not sure if there currently is one in the reserves though, someone who will become a first team player for United. Under Van Gaal I'm sure they'll get their chances though.
 
bosnian_red said:
Obviously it's always important for United especially to bring through youth players, give them a chance, and I think we'll keep on doing that with Van Gaal. We already have Januzaj who broke into the first team and will start his second professional season, James Wilson will get more chances in the first team, as will Michael Keane and Jesse Lingard I think and then we have players like Pereira, Pearson, Varela, etc., who maybe next season might be too soon. The thing is though, we've been buying average squad players for the most part for years now and our squad is littered with them. We desperately need to improve the starting 11 quality and that means buying 4-5 players for the starting 11 right away. I just hope we also sell a fair chunk of the squad players, like a few of the average wingers we have for Lingard to be a squad option, 1 of the strikers so Wilson gets more games, and Fellaini in midfield so we have less numbers but more quality overall.

Obviously if you have an exceptional talent, they'll break through and force their way into the starting 11. Januzaj was that exceptional talent, I'm not sure if there currently is one in the reserves though, someone who will become a first team player for United. Under Van Gaal I'm sure they'll get their chances though.
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Exactly, the time scales for the players development need to be considered as well, say for instance we do purchase Vidal, who is 27, one would assume to get 4-5 years of his very best football and maybe a few beyond that as someone useful to the squad (injuries and form permitting).

At the end of those 5 peak years, if they were to stay with the club you could have Pearson and Rothwell staking claims at the relatively young age of 24

It is all speculation and guess work of course but I can see the sense in going out and buying players approaching their peaks rather than relying solely on youngsters to get us back on top.
 
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