Jones sale makes 50m

greater wall

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Last week Manchester United announced the £1m sale of their 22-year-old reserve midfielder, David Jones, to Derby; small news yet a landmark. The transfer took to beyond £50m the total United have received from selling home-reared players during the Ferguson era. Wenger’s sale of Anthony Stokes to Sunderland for £2m raised his similar total to £39m and Jeremie Aliadiere, though man-of-the-match in the Anfield rout, may be the next Wenger product auctioned off.

The players Arsenal and United develop and keep in their first teams, from Cesc Fabregas to Paul Scholes, can be priceless, but even the cast- offs are good enough to add to the bottom line. Forty-five products of United’s youth system and 44 of Arsenal’s now play for other English league clubs, not including those who still belong to either club but are currently elsewhere on loan.

Taken from times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2767-2546123,00.html
 
How old was Fabregas when Arsenal nicked him? 16?

If that's the case and you're saying he shouldn't be regarded as a product of Arsenal's youth system, then we shouldn't count Jones as a product of ours. IIRC, we signed him from Southport or some other club when he was 16.
 
M160RA said:
How old was Fabregas when Arsenal nicked him? 16?

If that's the case and you're saying he shouldn't be regarded as a product of Arsenal's youth system, then we shouldn't count Jones as a product of ours. IIRC, we signed him from Southport or some other club when he was 16.
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Jones was at Wrexham when he was eight...then joined United at eleven....

.....he came through our system alright......

By the way.....anyone who arrives after leaving school is considered coming through the system.......it's been that way since the 1930's.....
 
Mr. MUJAC said:
Jones was at Wrexham when he was eight...then joined United at eleven....

.....he came through our system alright......

By the way.....anyone who arrives after leaving school is considered coming through the system.......it's been that way since the 1930's.....
Click to expand...

My mistake then...I for some reason thought we had signed Jones from another club when he was 16. :wenger:

So what about Fabregas' case...did he join Arsenal after leaving school in Barcelona, or is he technically considered as being a product of Barcelona's academy. Same with Pique/Rossi - whose academy are they products of?
 
M160RA said:
My mistake then...I for some reason thought we had signed Jones from another club when he was 16. :wenger:

So what about Fabregas' case...did he join Arsenal after leaving school in Barcelona, or is he technically considered as being a product of Barcelona's academy. Same with Pique/Rossi - whose academy are they products of?
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It is a mute point......I don't know how long Fabregas was at Barcelona before Arsenal signed him when he was 16.......Rossi was at Parma for three years and Pique at Barcelona when he was quite young.......

Even though Rossi and Pique played in our youth team for one season and we could argue they are our Academy products....in reality they were produced elsewhere......we just continued to develop their existing talent.....

Up to the mid 1990's when Academies came into existence.....most kids played for their school, local boys teams and probably trained twice a week at a league club if they were any good......some teams had Centre's of Excellence type activities and so young lads might attend a COE for a few years until he was old enough to sign YTS/Apprenticeship/Schoolboy forms once they left school at 15.......they then came to league clubs who 'started' their professional development.....

Since circa 1995/96.....most clubs have a structured Academy system which allows boys to play from the age of 6/7.....so it is fair to say that if a young lad has been with a club from 7-18 that he was developed there.....

What United often do is to get kids from other Academies at 13/14 like Kieran Richardson and bring them through.......personally I feel we can take credit for Kieran.....young lads need plenty of 'development' from 13 to 18....that's five years so while West Ham helped in the early stages we certainly developed him into a professional.....Lee Martin came in at 16 and I feel we have developed him significantly since then......

So back to Fabregas.......Arsenal can probably take some credit.....but how much is a personal perspective......he turns 20 this May....he has been there for three years.....so whatever raw talent he possessed has probably been harnessed alongside Henry, Gilberto, Llungberg et al........

Personally I still use the finishing school as a benchmark.......15/16.....if we get them at this age....2/3 years in the Youth team.....then reserves.....he is now a United player......

This way it is consistent with players in the past..........90% came at 15/16...
 
greater wall said:
Last week Manchester United announced the £1m sale of their 22-year-old reserve midfielder, David Jones, to Derby; small news yet a landmark. The transfer took to beyond £50m the total United have received from selling home-reared players during the Ferguson era. Wenger’s sale of Anthony Stokes to Sunderland for £2m raised his similar total to £39m and Jeremie Aliadiere, though man-of-the-match in the Anfield rout, may be the next Wenger product auctioned off.

The players Arsenal and United develop and keep in their first teams, from Cesc Fabregas to Paul Scholes, can be priceless, but even the cast- offs are good enough to add to the bottom line. Forty-five products of United’s youth system and 44 of Arsenal’s now play for other English league clubs, not including those who still belong to either club but are currently elsewhere on loan.

Taken from times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2767-2546123,00.html
Click to expand...

And he doesn't include

Beckham, Blackmore, Brebner, Collett, Davies, Wood, Harvey, Hilton, Howard, Kirovski, Cooke, Rankin, Rodlund, Stewart, Hogg, Thorrington, Sixsmith, Timm......another 18 who play in other leagues outside of England......
 
golden_blunder said:
Terry Cookes in yankland now aint he?
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Plays for Colorado Rapids (i think that's the team name). Was a really good interview with him in United We Stand last month.
 
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