Rojofiam
Full Member
- Joined
- May 11, 2017
- Messages
- 5,987
Fans on here always think our youngsters need a loan before coming in to the first team even when they see Yamal etc thriving and even closer to home Mainoo, Garnacho. If you're good enough, you're oldenough.
You are assuming that Carrington is capable of nurturing players to be ready for the elite level by 16, 17, 18 years of age with the same frequency as La Masia. Sadly, that's almost certainly not the case despite United undoubtedly having a very good academy. The only top level players we've produced in the last decade are Rashford, Greenwood and Mainoo. You can make a case for McTominay, Elanga, Gomes, and a few others, as good players who can make it to the top level, or had a good career in the PL or another top 5 league, but a lot of them needed to leave United in order to aid their development. I don't want to count the likes of Garnacho, because buying the best 16 year olds and letting them stay for 2-3 years in your U18s/U21s, and then integrate them into the first team or sell them for good money, isn't what makes your academy great IMO. Chelsea and City do exactly this, horde the best 16 year olds, and pretend they have the best academies in England. Especially City. At least Chelsea did have a good number of "real" academy graduates become top players.
With Barcelona, just at this moment, they have Yamal, Bernal, Gavi, Balde, Cubarsí, Fort, Casadó, López and Fati, all playing for the first team, who have been at Barca all their lives or joined them at a much younger age than 16. And who knows how many more there are in the youth ranks, that are ready to make the step up to first team level.
I do think it can be improved in the long-term, and United currently have an incredibly strong youth core in the U18s and U21s coming up, several of whom with a real chance of making it at United or having a good career in a top 5 European League, but at the same time, we have to admit that La Masia is way better than Carrington, and has been for a long time now. I haven't even mentioned the greatest club side of all time, and how their core was mostly made up by La Masia graduates.