The club once famed for its production line is struggling to compete across a number of lower-age levels, leading to questions as to the club's priorities
In the same week Manchester United were revealed to have bid £144m for Neymar and Manchester City were increasing their position as a future world force with the appointment of Pep Guardiola, the continued struggles of the Old Trafford club's youth teams has come under an increased focus.
Once the pride of the nation, United’s academy is currently struggling to cope in the significant shadow of the long list of former graduates. At a time when the club could do with the familiarity of achievement at youth level, they are instead encountering a barren spell.
After the failure of Nicky Butt’s under-19s to progress beyond the group stage of the Uefa Youth League, with a couple of high-profile hammerings along the way, Paul McGuinness’ under-18 outfit have struggled even more dramatically.
A horror run of 12 successive league defeats has left them rock bottom of the North Division of the Under-18 Premier League with three games remaining before the late-season split. They are already consigned to the lowest of the three season-ending groups for the final seven weeks of the season. There was also the not-insignificant matter of a 5-1 home defeat to Chelsea in the FA Youth Cup recently.
The results for McGuinness’ side have certainly been conditioned by external factors. The addition of the under-19 fixtures led to weakened sides occasionally being fielded in the first half of the season, while the injury crisis suffered at first-team level has resulted in the promotion of players up the system in order to cope.
But the problems don’t end there. A 9-0 loss to neighbours Manchester City at under-14 level earlier in the season underlined the struggles lower down the scale too as United’s youngsters at every age group find it increasingly hard to keep up with the competition. Even the under-21s’ recent surge up their league table has been aided by the inclusions of over-age players such as Sergio Romero, Marouane Fellaini and Will Keane in their search for match sharpness.
While results at youth level generally do not matter as much as the development of potential, it is concerning to say the least that United’s young players of today are being bred through a losing culture. Cameron Borthwick-Jackson's recent rise is proof that there is still some foundation for success in evidence.
But players such as Callum Gribbin and Marcus Rashford, Ro-Shaun Williams and Angel Gomes, for all of whom there are high hopes within the United coaching staff, have tasted defeat so often in recent months that there has to be concern over their morale and motivation at a key stage of their development.
Where once the Busby Babes and the Class of 92 paved the way for excellence, and even the likes of Wes Brown, Jonny Evans and Danny Welbeck followed the same route, United are now finding it difficult to provide the platform for success.
Perhaps that is not surprising when considering the noise being made across the city at the Etihad Campus. Less than 15 miles east of Old Trafford, Manchester City have quickly built a setup worthy of champions, not just on the training pitch but off it.
United have long since offered prospective youth additions places at the Ashton-on-Mersey secondary school in Sale, a specialist sports college with an excellent academic record. At a stage of life before agents are allowed by law, parents are major decision-makers for budding young footballers and the quality of their children’s education can be a telling factor when choosing a club.
However, City have taken the process to a whole new level thanks to their links with the exclusive St Bede’s private college, offering youngsters a place at the facility regardless of whether they are retained by the club for the duration of their school life. The fact that Pep Guardiola’s wife was given a VIP tour of the college last week as the couple look for suitable schooling for their three children says much about the exclusivity of the venue.
There is also the added bonus to City youngsters of the purpose-built Connell Sixth Form College on the Etihad Campus site itself, named after one of the founders of Manchester City and offering excellent facilities for students of sports sciences.
In recent years even United alumni such as Robin van Persie, Phil Neville, Darren Fletcher and Andy Cole have chosen to send their football-playing sons to City over United to enhance their academic range as well as their sporting ability.
In comparison to City’s modern offerings, United’s AON Training Complex at Carrington is looking more than a little rough around the edges. First used in 2000 as a successor to the primitive facilities at The Cliff, the club’s legendary former training ground, Carrington had originally been seen as a model for the rest to follow. But the failure to act on the advice of first David Moyes and now Louis van Gaal has left United’s potential future stars struggling to cope in the surroundings.
Both managers asked that floodlights be installed at Carrington to increase the opportunities for players to use the facilities, but only after retrospective planning permission had been sought and granted earlier this season did the big switch-on occur. Moreover, Van Gaal insisted that players at all levels be able to train on specialist Desso GrassMaster pitches mirroring the surface at Old Trafford, asking for four to be laid at the training ground.
But United’s decision-makers chose instead to go with just two new surfaces, putting the remainder of the earmarked cash towards the reconfiguration of the first-team car park. Added to the geography of the site which leaves the area open to the elements, the grass pitches on which many of the younger groups are now asked to train on can often become a far cry from the flat bowling greens that have proven to produce the most technically gifted graduates of youth teams around the world.
United have still to replace Brian McClair since the academy director left last summer for a role with the Scottish FA, with the club hoping to eventually find a replacement by the start of 2016-17. Such lack of leadership is clearly not helping to bring the setup in line with expectations.
When such steps are being taken, it is perhaps understandable that some within the youth sector at United are now finding it hard to believe they are at the same club under which Sir Alex Ferguson made the academy a focal point of the organisation. At a time when hundreds of millions of pounds has been spent on the first team, with plenty more having been offered to Neymar last summer, the youngsters are left carrying begging bowls in comparison.
Unfortunately for United there appears to be no quick fix. City have implemented such a sophisticated development model that it is now up to the Reds to come up with a new way to ensure they can recruit and develop the finest young players in the Manchester region.
It used to be United who led the way in England in the development of youth players, with the club’s former youngsters infiltrating the football league at all levels beyond their school-age years. But now the Red Devils are playing second fiddle in their own city and the results are beginning to reflect their new-found status as wannabe challengers rather than pace-setters.
The 3-0 and 4-0 defeats to Liverpool, a 4-0 reverse to CSKA Moscow, 5-0 against PSV and 5-1 to Chelsea. These are all-too-familiar results in a Manchester United youth setup that was once thriving, and it is time for them to address the increasingly concerning trend of losing football becoming prevalent at Carrington.
- Goal