The fresh faced and future star studded United youth team of 1992 may now almost seem like a distant memory to many United fans, but it was these players who provided the nucleus of Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad for many years to come.
After breaking into the first team ahead of his other class of 92’ graduates, Ryan Giggs had already made himself an established first team player by the time many of the youngsters were given their real big break in the team.
It was the beginning of the 95/96 season before many of United’s young prodigies were really given their chance, losing 3-1 on the opening day of the season, on a dismal day for the club at Villa Park (and notably, the last time we’ve lost at that ground!). Despite the curse of the new grey away strip the team had been sporting, Alan Hansen used all his expertise in order to advise Sir Alex, with his infamous quip, “You’ll never win anything with kids.”
Following the shaky start to the season, United’s so-called “kids” went to prove Hansen and all their other sceptics wrong, with Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, David Beckham and Paul Scholes in particular playing a key role in order to secure the club their second League and FA Cup double winning season in three years, under the guidance of Eric Cantona who returned from his ban part way through the season.
Fergie and his kids on this occasion had the last laugh, and it was these youngsters who formed the backbone of the club’s famous Treble winning team just four seasons later.
But introducing youth is not something which stopped there for Sir Alex. Over the years as well documented, United have been renowned worldwide for their superiority in developing the best youth talent, with a success rate likely to blow any other Premiership team out of the water.
Sir Alex has always to some degree managed to find the perfect blend of youth and experience, with the 92’ class having the likes of Mark Hughes, Eric Cantona, Steve Bruce, Bryan Robson and the like to look up to, the current crop of youngsters are able to find their feet under the careful guidance of such seasoned veterans as Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and Edwin van der Sar.
Despite the large amounts of money banded about in the modern area, ever since the arrivals of the likes of Abramovich, The Glazers, Hicks and Gillet and Co. it seems that a strong youth set-up plays more than a key role in the deciding of the Premiership. Over the last two seasons, Liverpool in particular have flexed their spending muscles in trying to purchase the Championship, but to no avail.
However, the problem with these teams is, they cannot for any amount of money buy the amounts of heart and desire that comes with a young, home-grown talent, raring to burst onto the scene, waiting in the wings for a chance. The kind of desire and tenacity not seen at the other members of the ‘Big Four’ since the promotion of John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Mr Liverpool himself, Jamie Carragher to their respective first teams. Players such as Darren Fletcher, not always first choice for Sir Alex, and not always a fan favourite, is starting to win over the Old Trafford faithful, with his performances in the big games, in which he will be undoubtedly one of the first names considered for the United teamsheet.
To use Liverpool as an example again, Rafa Benitez has excelled himself this season with his many outspoken comments concerning United, much to his humiliation, Rafa appears to have neglected much of his clubs youth. Despite the occasional use of new youngsters such as David N’Gog, Rafa has decided to neglect many of the youth side that defeated our own side in the FA Youth Cup final merely two years ago, preferring to spend (wisely) £19million on Robbie Keane and £7million on Andrea Dossena.
United’s youth scouting system is one which, for the benefit of the club, has now spread to accommodate not just the crop of England’s talents, but now the World’s, boasting special talents from the likes of England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Brazil, Serbia, Italy, Norway and Germany amongst others.
Although young players can be a gamble, and not all of them work out, what they do give to a squad is strength in depth. So far this season, United have used more players than any other team in the Premiership, fielding 29 players so far. The likes of Rafael and Jonny Evans and in particular have been revelations this season, proving not only that they can hold their own at the highest level, but also make a decent push for a first team place. With other youngsters knocking at the door, such as Danny Welbeck, Darren Gibson and Rodrigo Possebon and next season seeing the return of Fraizer Campbell, the arrival of Serbia’s Adam Ljajic as well as the likes of Fabio, Federico Macheda and Davide Petrucci certain to feature more since being selected for the Champions League squad, the future of the club certainly appears to be in good hands for many years to come!
Following on from Failsworth Devil’s article, this piece came from lifelong red Stuart Davis.
Man Utd News 24/7
I think we can also attribute this new found confidence to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.Having made an impact himself from the get go,he knew how to teach the kids to do the same.Even though in 95 we also got a lot of youngsters coming through,i think this class has broke the class ceiling even more effectively because they have carried United to the final of a competition.Imagine what it would do for Gibson,Rafael,Evans and Welbeck if they beat Tottenham on Sunday.
go prove your worth kids!
We’ve got our own Rafalution: Rafael Da Silva!!
(poor old Gary!!)
There’s nothing better than to see young homegrown talent making it at OT.
Long may it continue!
Ye well said…….TOP ARTICLE
On sunday, let the kids play (along with the other `sqaud` players). We want to win it… of course we do, but they deserve a chance and if they play and play well & lose, then so be it…
I want to see foster, Evans, Rafael, o’shea, fabio, gibson, possebon, wellbeck, nani, anderson, tosic etc… all involved in some capacity, they’ll do us proud……
Come on Reds
Don’t forget Daniel Drinkwater.
apparently the fat spanish waiter is on his bike at the end of the week – bookies are suspending betting according to ssn
i’d be suprised if he got sacked before the end of the season… i think we all dont want him sacked as they might get someone half decent in, instead… although it would be highly amusing after his various rants!
Another one to add to list of useless twats that Sir Alex has seen off
)
I for one hope the waiter stays as I just can’t help but enjoy ridiculing the dippers.
Reading this made me realise i miss the 90′s, early 90′s before all the big success then obviously The Treble in 1999, (yes ABU’s, THE TREBLE!) Thanks to the likes of Scholes,Neville,Butt,Beckham and Giggs they helped us turn into the hugely successful club we are now, obviously we’ve got our great history before all this happened but we’re completely dominating at the moment and to look back on it all now the 90′s was my favourite era.
Have faith in our youth, their the foundations of this club.
Oh and he’s cracking up he’s cracking up he’s cracking rafa’s cracking up!
Hear Hear! Brilliant Article!
I personally wonder if we as fans will have the patience to let some of these young prospects develop into the stars we want them to be. TV service wasn’t what it is back in the day so I don’t know for sure on this, but I would be willing to bet that Gary didn’t always have flawless games for us when he was first coming through. I would be willing to bet there were games when Scholes went missing and didn’t have an impact on the game. But they were given a chance, not just a few games here and there, but for a few seasons, to develop and learn and to gain experience. And to be honest, with the climate of football and the financial situation making winning and Champs league spots so imperative, I seriously doubt we can afford that same patience. I hope we don’t turn into a team that buys mercenaries to fill every gap and we retain something similar to the current mix, but I see it happening.
An example of my doom and gloom outlook would be with what some people are saying we should do next year for our striker options. Some say Tevez is not worth the 32 million, which is debatable, and that we should let him go. Those who think this way sometimes go on to say, we will have Rooney and Berba, then we can bring back Campbell and promote Welbeck and we will have a killer strike force. And I agree that looks decent on paper. But what happens when Rooney picks up his usual two month injury around November. Would a partnership of Welbeck and Berba be able to go into grounds like Villa Park or the Craven Cottage and grind out results? How many points would we be willing to drop before fans started screaming out for better back ups, saying Danny isn’t up for it? It would be immediate. There would be calls for us to sign anyone, any striker at all from whatever league, to come in and have a big name and to replace the home growns.
Is that right Shepsii, that fat useless gobby greasty wanker could be getting the tintack soon?
Please, not before the end of the season….. We all have great fun taking the piss out of dipper supporters about the dopey bollocks rants about SAF
hey guys…..any updates on Tosic? how about campbell? hasn’t played much for Harry rite?
Good article and highlighting of the likes of Macheda.
Its important to chart the progress of the youth and reserve team beacause regardless of the signings made in the season, the manager will always have to rely on promising talent coming thru the ranks to push everyone on to success. A winning mentality runs right through this club and that doesnt stop with the first team. The recycling, for want of a better word, of our past greats such as McClair, Solskjaer, Phelan and co back into training the young talent in the club explains how the United tradition of success is intrinsic and instilled in their players from day one.
The likes of Febian Brandy, Craig Cathcart, Sam Hewson, Tom Cleverly are ones to keep an eye on. Also Rochdale born, Matthew James scores a few screamers. I wonder if his story will be one in the vein of Darren Gibson or one which sees him slip into lower league obscurity. Still, the fact that these players are catching the eye can only be a good thing.