Article from the Independent:
Paul Scholes column: As Manchester United man, I'm worried that Manchester City have moved ahead of the game at youth level
When I was a kid, it was the case among the lads I played football with that if Manchester United wanted to sign you then joining Manchester City was not even a consideration. United did not have to persuade or offer inducements. We would have walked there ourselves.
Thirty years on, and the picture in Manchester is very different and, as a United fan, it worries me. Trying to look at it from a neutral perspective I have to say that what City have achieved is impressive and their impact on the youth scene in Manchester began long before the opening of their City Football Academy this week, an event which seems to have generated more publicity in some quarters than the arrival of Christmas itself.
It has been no secret among people I know in football that City have taken great strides in their youth academy programmes, to the extent that there are even United players past and present who have, or at least once had, sons at City’s academy. That will be difficult for a lot of United fans to get their heads around. I guess when it comes to a parent wanting the right thing for their child, it takes precedence over even the deepest loyalties.
Producing young footballers is a very difficult process. I was part of a group of players who managed to battle our way right through the youth teams and reserves at a club we loved to be very successful in the first team. We know that it does not happen often. Clearly, City feel that if they can produce just a handful of first-team players from their new £200m academy it will have been worth the investment, and surely that is right.
United have won 10 FA Youth Cups, more than any club in the land and eight more than City. Yet the buzz in Manchester is that it is City now who have the better academy programme. That it is City who are getting the better players in the local area. How that has happened, I cannot say definitively but it will come down to more than one factor. Clearly, the offer of a professional contract when a boy turns 17, and the size of that contract can never be ignored.
It is also about the coaching too. I am more in favour of creating footballers who know how to do the jobs they need to do in a game. At City the emphasis has, I am told, been more about teaching kids to play in certain systems. The results of all the age-group teams are not published by the clubs, not below the Under-18s anyway, but I have heard that when the clubs play each other across the age groups, it is City who come out on top.
Some people say that winning is not that important in youth development. I disagree. You learn about being a footballer by playing matches and you learn about winning by winning those games. Playing at United, in the Under-16s and Under-18s, we were expected to win every week. My contemporaries, people like Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs, were born and bred winners, and that was the way United liked it. Winning games prepared us for the first team, where we were expected to win every time we stepped on the pitch.
It is a nice idea to say to kids “it doesn’t matter about the result”, but when you become a professional you quickly realise that is all that matters. The sooner you get the winning mentality, the better.
United last won the FA Youth Cup, an Under-18s competition, in 2011 and they were beaten by Chelsea, another very strong academy, in the semi-final the following year. City last won it in 2008 and in the last three years have been knocked out in the fifth round, twice by Fulham. What might concern United fans is that in the last two years their team has been eliminated by Burnley and, last season, Huddersfield Town.
The FA Youth Cup is just one way of taking the temperature of a club’s academy. United have a fantastic history in producing players and there will always be boys who will want to come to the club. The issue is whether they are good enough for the first team. Some of the current lads who have been promoted, such as Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett, have benefited from an injury crisis but will they be there in the long term? James Wilson clearly has a chance of making the grade.
The bigger picture is how City have upped the stakes with their new academy and training complex. United’s Carrington base is a great training ground and academy, but City have just taken theirs to another level. These things matter now. It is a long way from the days when I used to get three buses from my home in north Manchester to the old Cliff training ground in Salford.
It is a subject that I make no excuse for returning to. In those days you were expected to get yourself to training on time. There were no minibuses to ferry you around. None of the mollycoddling. It was sink or swim and I loved it, especially being with my mates all day. It taught me about being a good footballer but also about taking responsibility for myself. I learnt to be streetwise.
But things change and you can take nothing for granted. In the modern era, United, with their history of being the greatest talent producer, have to watch that they do not become second choice in their own city.
Paul Scholes column: As Manchester United man, I'm worried that Manchester City have moved ahead of the game at youth level
When I was a kid, it was the case among the lads I played football with that if Manchester United wanted to sign you then joining Manchester City was not even a consideration. United did not have to persuade or offer inducements. We would have walked there ourselves.
Thirty years on, and the picture in Manchester is very different and, as a United fan, it worries me. Trying to look at it from a neutral perspective I have to say that what City have achieved is impressive and their impact on the youth scene in Manchester began long before the opening of their City Football Academy this week, an event which seems to have generated more publicity in some quarters than the arrival of Christmas itself.
It has been no secret among people I know in football that City have taken great strides in their youth academy programmes, to the extent that there are even United players past and present who have, or at least once had, sons at City’s academy. That will be difficult for a lot of United fans to get their heads around. I guess when it comes to a parent wanting the right thing for their child, it takes precedence over even the deepest loyalties.
Producing young footballers is a very difficult process. I was part of a group of players who managed to battle our way right through the youth teams and reserves at a club we loved to be very successful in the first team. We know that it does not happen often. Clearly, City feel that if they can produce just a handful of first-team players from their new £200m academy it will have been worth the investment, and surely that is right.
United have won 10 FA Youth Cups, more than any club in the land and eight more than City. Yet the buzz in Manchester is that it is City now who have the better academy programme. That it is City who are getting the better players in the local area. How that has happened, I cannot say definitively but it will come down to more than one factor. Clearly, the offer of a professional contract when a boy turns 17, and the size of that contract can never be ignored.
It is also about the coaching too. I am more in favour of creating footballers who know how to do the jobs they need to do in a game. At City the emphasis has, I am told, been more about teaching kids to play in certain systems. The results of all the age-group teams are not published by the clubs, not below the Under-18s anyway, but I have heard that when the clubs play each other across the age groups, it is City who come out on top.
Some people say that winning is not that important in youth development. I disagree. You learn about being a footballer by playing matches and you learn about winning by winning those games. Playing at United, in the Under-16s and Under-18s, we were expected to win every week. My contemporaries, people like Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs, were born and bred winners, and that was the way United liked it. Winning games prepared us for the first team, where we were expected to win every time we stepped on the pitch.
It is a nice idea to say to kids “it doesn’t matter about the result”, but when you become a professional you quickly realise that is all that matters. The sooner you get the winning mentality, the better.
United last won the FA Youth Cup, an Under-18s competition, in 2011 and they were beaten by Chelsea, another very strong academy, in the semi-final the following year. City last won it in 2008 and in the last three years have been knocked out in the fifth round, twice by Fulham. What might concern United fans is that in the last two years their team has been eliminated by Burnley and, last season, Huddersfield Town.
The FA Youth Cup is just one way of taking the temperature of a club’s academy. United have a fantastic history in producing players and there will always be boys who will want to come to the club. The issue is whether they are good enough for the first team. Some of the current lads who have been promoted, such as Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett, have benefited from an injury crisis but will they be there in the long term? James Wilson clearly has a chance of making the grade.
The bigger picture is how City have upped the stakes with their new academy and training complex. United’s Carrington base is a great training ground and academy, but City have just taken theirs to another level. These things matter now. It is a long way from the days when I used to get three buses from my home in north Manchester to the old Cliff training ground in Salford.
It is a subject that I make no excuse for returning to. In those days you were expected to get yourself to training on time. There were no minibuses to ferry you around. None of the mollycoddling. It was sink or swim and I loved it, especially being with my mates all day. It taught me about being a good footballer but also about taking responsibility for myself. I learnt to be streetwise.
But things change and you can take nothing for granted. In the modern era, United, with their history of being the greatest talent producer, have to watch that they do not become second choice in their own city.
