Ahead of the Manchester United Player of the Year awards, Michael Carrick talked about how great it has been to have so many youth team players involved in the first team set up this season. The Jimmy Murphy and Denzil Haroun awards will be given later in the evening.

They’ve been a breath of fresh air. It’s a big part of the history and the tradition of this club. At this club you see a pathway. If you’re good enough then you get a chance. The manager has certainly done that since he’s been here and that’s gone on for a number of years. It’s great to see the young boys come in, get their chance and do so well. They bring enegry and enthusiam to the team, but also quality, which is great to see.

With an FA Cup final at Wembley waiting, Carrick has revealed how desperate he is to add one of the few missing medals to his collection.

It’s massive. It’s been far too long since we’ve been there for a cup final. We’re desperate to go. We had a great time there last week but we need to go and do it all over again. Hopefully we can get something like the same feeling. I’m absolutely desperate [for an FA Cup medal]. The one in 2007 slipped away from us and that was very hard to take. We’ve had a couple of close calls since but this is obviously our best chance and we’re desperate to get our hands on it.