We should be so proud of our youth system

Wumminator

The Qatar Pounder
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May 8, 2008
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Obertans #1 fan.
Just sitting here amazed at how much money we’ve saved through bringing youth through.

We had two players starting for us today from our academy. One scored two goals. We’ve then also had three lads coming on.

Five of our lads coming through the academy. Some just starting out. One is one of the best players in the world right now. Some have given us wins against European giants or our arch rivals.

Whatever happens next, our youth system and our record of bringing lads through is great. Long may it continue.
 
Manchester players for a Manchester owner, for Manchester fans
 
Seriously though its class. Doesn't matter what nationality they are or if its a couple of years in the system vs their who life you just love to see them play.

It's fantastic
 
We are, aren’t we? It’s one of the things that sets this club apart from others.
 
slored1 said:
Barca, Porto, Benfica are the closest comparisons I think.
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Think Athletic Bilbao is worth a mention too. They're not a top-top team at the moment, but they bring through 1-2 first team players more or less every year.
And even if they limit themselves to only fielding basque players and players with basque heritage, they regularly qualify for European competitions, they occasionally buy players, but a lot of their XI every year is a result of their academy.
 
Not so long ago the posts on the board were “what do our scouts do?”, “what’s the point of our youth team?” Etc

it goes to show it depends on the man in charge giving a shit
 
Head and shoulders the thing I love most about our club. We don't get enough credit for it IMO
 
slored1 said:
Barca, Porto, Benfica are the closest comparisons I think.
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I think you have to treat clubs like Porto Benfica and Ajax differently. Not to take away from their youth development. I'd argue Ajax are probably the best at it.

But with the money that Barca and United have, it would be easy to neglect the academies.
 
It's no where near talked about enough, how many consecutive games is it now a youth product has made the squad?
 
Yes, really love our own youth players, their development and the history we have with that since Busby and Fergie. Let’s hope the Qatari keep investing in it and not gonna buy every player like PSG. PSG have been a circus since the Qatari took over.
 
Rashford has obviously been a fantastic success story for our youth system. He’s now in the ~£100m range and he cost us nothing.

But I’m not sure I’d really count Garnacho as a product of our youth system, seeing as he joined the academy at 16 - some player make their senior debut at that age.

Maybe it’s because I grew up on the Class of 92 and I’m spoilt, but I’d like to see more top talent coming through from the academy. Obviously, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was the next major breakthrough, until he wasn’t. I think, given our history, we’re due for another youth player to become a first team regular, or at least a match day squad regular.
 
Well this is kind of old news TBH. I was always proud of our youth system and the only two major clubs in Europe with us are Ajax and Barca. Mark Robins, class of 92, Welbeck, Macheda, Lingard, Wes Brown, Pogba, Rashford all came from our academy
 
norm87cro said:
Well this is kind of old news TBH. I was always proud of our youth system and the only two major clubs in Europe with us are Ajax and Barca. Mark Robins, class of 92, Welbeck, Macheda, Lingard, Wes Brown, Pogba, Rashford all came from our academy
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That's not to mention the ones that make it an lower league clubs as well.
 
Our academy system and pathway to the first team has always been second to none and the envy of most big clubs against Europe.

It's great to see we're reaping the benefit of a reboot of the system from I think around 2014/2015?

But yes, Rashford is already a bona fide star, Garnacho, Mainoo are knocking on the door, Elanga, McTominay are firmly established squad players, and I expect to see Hannibal, Iqbal in the first team squad for next season too. I'm not sure what the future holds for Mason, but he was undoubtedly an excellent talent before his arrest.
 
It's pretty mad how many top wingers we produce. But only wingers seemingly. Would be nice to spread some of that fairy dust on midfield development. Hope Mainoo has it in him.
 
it is a great feature of the club. It must be a great help in signing young lads that there has always been a clear pathway to the first team if they are good enough, compared to City or Chelsea for example who seem to hoover up and then discard later.
 
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Eric_the_Red99 said:
Rashford has obviously been a fantastic success story for our youth system. He’s now in the ~£100m range and he cost us nothing.

But I’m not sure I’d really count Garnacho as a product of our youth system, seeing as he joined the academy at 16 - some player make their senior debut at that age.

Maybe it’s because I grew up on the Class of 92 and I’m spoilt, but I’d like to see more top talent coming through from the academy. Obviously, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was the next major breakthrough, until he wasn’t. I think, given our history, we’re due for another youth player to become a first team regular, or at least a match day squad regular.
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Garnacho is our academy player, he joined our academy, played for few years and progressed through the ranks.

He isn't academy player like Rashford or Welbeck who joined when they were 7 or 8 but still players like Garnacho counts.
 
If you guys are happy with the current crop of youngsters to come through, wait until you see our current U16s. They're significantly better than any other recent age group in terms of their performances throughout the last few years.
Lacey has made the news a bit but there's also Fitzgerald and a couple of thers that have gone a little more under the radar. Without setting expectations too high it's very Co92 esque having a group of very promising youngsters in the same team.
 
Trying to listed out all our notable generations from academy over the years. I might have missed some names there.

Particularly those in bold turned out to be world class player.

- Class of 92 - Giggs, Becks, Scholes, Gary, Butt, Phil, Gillespie
- Fletcher, Brown, O'Shea
- Pique, Evans, Rossi, (Gibson)
- Welbeck, Cleverley, (Macheda)
- Pogba, Lingard, (Morrison)
- Januzaj
- Rashford, Mctominay, Henderson, Pereira, (Tuanzebe)
- Greenwood, Elanga, Mejbri, (Garner), (Gomes), (Chong)
- Garnancho, Mainoo, (Iqbal), (Hansen-Aaroen)
 
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RedRonaldo said:
Trying to listed out all our notable generations from academy over the years. I might have missed some names there.

- Class of 92
- Fletcher, Brown, O'Shea
- Pique, Evans, Rossi, (Gibson)
- Welbeck, (Cleverley), (Macheda)
- Pogba, Lingard, (Morrison)
- Januzaj
- Rashford, Mctominay, Henderson, Pereira, (Tuanzebe)
- Greenwood, Elanga, Mejbri, (Garner), (Gomes), (Chong)
- Garnancho, Mainoo, (Iqbal), (Hansen-Aaroen)
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Think it is massively harsh on Cleverly to be in that colour!
 
golden_blunder said:
Not so long ago the posts on the board were “what do our scouts do?”, “what’s the point of our youth team?” Etc

it goes to show it depends on the man in charge giving a shit
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As well as how fickle fans are. If we struggled for top 4 and one academy player played one bad game, I could see those threads making a comeback. :wenger:
 
Eric_the_Red99 said:
Rashford has obviously been a fantastic success story for our youth system. He’s now in the ~£100m range and he cost us nothing.

But I’m not sure I’d really count Garnacho as a product of our youth system, seeing as he joined the academy at 16 - some player make their senior debut at that age.

Maybe it’s because I grew up on the Class of 92 and I’m spoilt, but I’d like to see more top talent coming through from the academy. Obviously, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was the next major breakthrough, until he wasn’t. I think, given our history, we’re due for another youth player to become a first team regular, or at least a match day squad regular.
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Mainoo.
 
RedRonaldo said:
Trying to listed out all our notable generations from academy over the years. I might have missed some names there.

Particularly those in bold turned out to be world class player.

- Class of 92 - Giggs, Becks, Scholes, Gary, Butt, Phil, Gillespie
- Fletcher, Brown, O'Shea
- Pique, Evans, Rossi, (Gibson)
- Welbeck, Cleverley, (Macheda)
- Pogba, Lingard, (Morrison)
- Januzaj
- Rashford, Mctominay, Henderson, Pereira, (Tuanzebe)
- Greenwood, Elanga, Mejbri, (Garner), (Gomes), (Chong)
- Garnancho, Mainoo, (Iqbal), (Hansen-Aaroen)
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These are just from the last 30 years or so, there's a heck of a lot more, Mark Hughes, Norman Whiteside, George Best, Bobby Charlton, Duncan Edwards to name a few
 
RedRonaldo said:
Trying to listed out all our notable generations from academy over the years. I might have missed some names there.

Particularly those in bold turned out to be world class player.

- Class of 92 - Giggs, Becks, Scholes, Gary, Butt, Phil, Gillespie
- Fletcher, Brown, O'Shea
- Pique, Evans, Rossi, (Gibson)
- Welbeck, Cleverley, (Macheda)
- Pogba, Lingard, (Morrison)
- Januzaj
- Rashford, Mctominay, Henderson, Pereira, (Tuanzebe)
- Greenwood, Elanga, Mejbri, (Garner), (Gomes), (Chong)
- Garnancho, Mainoo, (Iqbal), (Hansen-Aaroen)
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Micheal/Will Keane too out of the Pogba age group.
 
Definitely proud of our club culture to develop youth players. We've won the most FA youth cups, developed some of the best footballers ever and our record of featuring a homegrown player in every matchday squad for 85 consecutive years is an unbelievable achievement and testament to how much youth development is a cornerstone of this club.

However, I'm struggling to see why the academy warrants much fanfare at the moment. Relatively speaking, the academy has been lagging in terms of the talent it's producing compared to the Busby Babes, some of the lads from the 60s-80s and the Class of 92. Some of the better players who have come from the academy recently, left quite early to better their careers such as Pogba and Pique. Rashford, for sure has been a success but he feels like a one off rather than part of a talented group.

Some of the new crop who won the FA Youth Cup last season need time before we can make a proper assessment, so it would be unfair to put any pressure on them to live up to some of the great players to come out of our illustrious academy. I still think there's a long road ahead for us before we start seeing a solid crop of players coming through and the lack of investment in the facilities by the Glazers would've not helped this one bit. I don't know if I'm being too harsh. I just think we're so far removed from some of the talent we've seen come through in the past.
 
Jonny Evans has had a fantastic career
CL, PL, FA Cup, League Cup
100 caps for his country

Plus a few charity shields, the club World Cup and the championship title with Sunderland
 
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