I presume he’s going to hit you with the following stat now
Manchester United have had a graduate from their youth system in every single match day squad since October 30, 1937. That’s 75 years, or 3,623 consecutive games*
*Stat correct as of 2013
There’s a Twitter account that tweets that after every game. Giggs and scholes covered that for about 20 years.
I didnt say it was back up to the argument, I merely pointed it out. Its really a beautiful stat, one which united fans love wallowing in. Stats are great.
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Fergie was fortunate that a good few came through together. He could then a la cody , prune rather than eviscerate year on year.
Different now.
Anyhow the rest don’t look much better, and soccer is crap, and manyoo the epitome of corporate sport.
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Wes Brown, Danny Welbeck spring to mind along with John OShea, Johnny Evans, Darren Fletcher, Kieran Richardson, Danny Simpson, Darron Gibson, Danny Drinkwater, Tom Cleverly all came through the youth system.
There’s no elite players on that list.
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This stat is still correct as of today’s date, that is 79 years now.
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I think it’s that Man united historian account that tweets it.
God that’s amazing. What a club. Just unreal. Completely different to all the other clubs in the world. You’re lucky to have them in your life.
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Who said anything about elite? United have always brought youth players through.
Because bang average youth players aren’t worth a fuck.
John O’Shea played 400 odd times for United, Wes Brown over 350 appearances, Darren Fletcher the same etc etc
They were all decent club players.
There’s 1, possibly 2, “elite” players currently playing in the Premier League. The production of solid, if unspectacular, players, like those you have named, is the absolute most English academies can hope to achieve.
EDIT: More directed towards @anon32894817
That’s bolox.
United have brought through nothing only sub standard below average squad players in the last 20 years. The likes of fletcher , o Shea and wes brown were badly found out when they moved on. United academy is run by dinosaurs light years behind the top academies in the world. Trying to claim pogba as theirs was a new low.
What dinosaurs and who are the top academies you are referencing?
Its not just Manchester in fairness, its the whole of the north of England. Liverpool is as bad as Manchester and the likes of Sunderland and Newcastle are bordering on third world.
Man U are not interested in signing a player unless they can pay €30 million for him.
There was a stat bandied around their last season when £59 million signing Angel Di Maria made his debut at one of the real old traditional clubs of the English game, Burnley (one of the 12 founding members of the football league) that in their 132 history Burnley’s cumulative spend on players £44 million didn’t even amount to three quarters of what Man U had spent on di Maria.
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Hardly surprising, Burnley have spent most of their time since football became so filled with money in the lower divisions while Man Utd have been one of the richest in the world for all of that time