Utd now just another big club | All "United losing identity" stuff here

The actual article isn't nearly as attention grabbing as the headline. As per. He was basically just pointing out that United have always bought big, especially in Fergie's first title winning squad. Which is unequivocably true.
 
Blackett and McNair must be delighted with their roles in the squad, any of the previous seasons you wouldn't have expected either in the squad let alone first team at this stage of development, we would have probably used Blind in central defence in case of emergency before moving to youth players. McNair is the biggest surprise, we'd barely known he existed prior to this season and now he's growing into a very important role at a time when we need him most.
 
Mr. MUJAC said:
Shaw wouldn't have counted as a 'Busby Babe'…he was bought for a record transfer fee like Tommy Taylor.
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I didn't think that mattered. Wikipedia includes Taylor, but I'm sure you're correct!

I know I've read an article discussing the high fees of some of the "Babes" that mentioned they weren't all youth products.

I suspect the term has simply become synonymous with that entire team.
 
Mr. MUJAC said:
J. Burt is either a crap researcher or an idiot!

We have had plenty of juniors in our teams over the years.

Here are some stats of average number of youth players in squad per season:

NOTE: Only 11 in squad up to 1965/66 when one substitute was introduced and up to 1987/88.

1946/47 - 4.25 BUSBY
1947/48 - 5.63
1948/49 - 4.65
1949/50 - 4.15

1950/51 - 4.82
1951/52 - 4.67
1952/53 - 6.02
1953/54 - 5.77
1954/55 - 6.62
1955/56 - 7.70
1956/57 - 8.18
1957/58 - 7.54
1958/59 - 7.37
1959/60 - 8.22

1960/61 - 7.75
1961/62 - 7.45
1962/63 - 5.48
1963/64 - 4.96
1964/65 - 5.22
1965/66 - 5.97
1966/67 - 7.25
1967/68 - 8.30
1968/69 - 8.59
1969/70 - 7.71 McGUINNESS

1970/71 - 8.49
1971/72 - 8.12 O'FARRELL
1972/73 - 5.12
1973/74 - 4.22 DOCHERTY
1974/75 - 3.24
1975/76 - 3.12
1976/77 - 4.12
1977/78 - 4.02 SEXTON
1978/79 - 4.19
1979/80 - 3.09

1980/81 - 3.88
1981/82 - 2.71 ATKINSON
1982/83 - 3.23
1983/84 - 3.88
1984/85 - 4.60
1985/86 - 4.38
1986/87 - 3.25
1987/88 - 3.71 FERGUSON
1988/89 - 4.90
1989/90 - 4.29

1990/91 - 3.77
1991/92 - 3.29
1992/93 - 3.52
1993/94 - 2.43
1994/95 - 5.58
1995/96 - 5.86
1996/97 - 5.33
1997/98 - 7.00
1998/99 - 6.19
1999/00 - 6.98

2000/01 - 7.63
2001/02 - 6.90
2002/03 - 7.97
2003/04 - 6.82
2003/04 - 5.89
2004/05 - 6.59
2005/06 - 5.93
2006/07 - 5.25
2007/08 - 6.48
2008/09 - 6.14
2009/10 - 5.12

2010/11 - 4.96
2011/12 - 4.89
2012/13 - 4.81
2013/14 - 4.20 MOYES

So you can see that in the pre 1970's when there were no substitutes our team was made up of 75% of youth players.

It dropped off after Docherty went on a spending spree and worst under Atkinson.

It took a while for Fergie to redevelop the youth system but saying the 'Class of 1992' was a one of is so far from the mark it makes you wonder who does the research for these newspapers. Clearly we have bought big names but never at the expense of developing youth.

Interestingly the last few seasons under Ferguson the average started to drop as he clearly took his eyes off the ball…playing experienced players out of position rather than elevating from the ranks.

We have had 431 players turn out for the first team since 1946 and 51% of those have been youth players.

Up to last week we have played 3,708 consecutive competitive first team games with at least one youth player in the squad.

In the first four games this season the squad total was 7, 8, 11, and 8.

Let's not let facts get in the way of a 'good' story hey?
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Brilliant post
 
Thread bump! The Mail has run another article about how United might regret letting Wellbeck go. Guess it was bound to happen given this weekends fixture list.
 
Mitchell Nicholas said:
Thread bump! The Mail has run another article about how United might regret letting Wellbeck go. Guess it was bound to happen given this weekends fixture list.
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We could at least get his name right but yeah I haven't changed my mind about our transfer business that day. Sold Welbeck for piss all when Arsenal were desperate.
 
Manucho the boss said:
We could at least get his name right but yeah I haven't changed my mind about our transfer business that day. Sold Welbeck for piss all when Arsenal were desperate.
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To be fair, it's not as if it can't go favorably for us. If Welbeck ends up being good but not great and then Arsenal would have spent a lot of time giving chances to him when they could have gotten someone better. Obviously on the other hand if he becomes a top striker then it would backfire.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
To be fair, it's not as if it can't go favorably for us. If Welbeck ends up being good but not great and then Arsenal would have spent a lot of time giving chances to him when they could have gotten someone better. Obviously on the other hand if he becomes a top striker then it would backfire.
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Not in the timeframe they had. Giroud had just gotten injured and they were really struggling for strikers, we bailed them out last minute for not far off the fee's Ross McCormack and Brown Ideye went for.

Madness.

If we had a flexible player like Cavani lined up to replace him then I could have seen the logic but Falcao was too similar to RVP and left the squad short of the abilities Danny brought.
 
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