Since “Fergie’s Fledglings” because the biggest thing since the “Busby Babes”, the pressure has been on the Manchester United academy to produce excellent talent.
When looking at the squads of our rivals, it’s bizarre that United’s academy is sometimes viewed as a bit of a failure. As if being unable to bring through a group of players like we did in 1995 means our academy isn’t good enough. We’re no West Ham but we certainly fair well in comparison to the other clubs in the top four.
Jamie Carragher emerged from his youth team in 1996. John Terry and Steven Gerrard did in 1998. Ashley Cole was the latest established player to come from the Arsenal academy (by this, I mean they joined the Arsenal academy as a kid… not poached by the Arsenal academy after making a name for themselves in the youth scene elsewhere. Cesc Fabregas, Gael Clichy, Kieran Gibbs etc. all came from other clubs) but he isn’t there anymore.
In this time United have produced three first team players in Wes Brown, Darren Fletcher and John O’Shea who have close to 900 appearances between them. However, producing players for our first team isn’t the only successful element of our academy.
Red Rants looked at the purpose of academy this week and it’s interesting to see the positives it has brought us.
Whilst rival fans have a lot to say about the money we spend, it shouldn’t be ignored just how much money our academy brings in. Just looking at the past few years
Sales from the academy players between 2005-2009
Giuseppe Rossi to Villarreal – £6.6m
Frazier Campbell to Sunderland - £6m
Kierian Richardson to Sunderland – £5.5m
Gerard Pique to Barcelona – £5m
Phil Neville to Everton – £3.5m
Lee Martin to Ipswich – £2m
Phil Bardsley to Sunderland – £2m
Chris Eagles to Burnley – £1.25m
Ryan Shawcross to Stoke – £1m
David Jones to Derby – £1m
Jonathan Spector to West Ham £0.5m
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake to Plymouth – £0.2m (we were robbed!)
Richard Eckersley to Burnley – £0.5m expected (compensation yet to be decided)
(Danny Simpson likely to be sold for around £2m this summer)
Total: £35.05m (£37.05)
This money has paid for Antonio Valencia, Edwin Van der Sar, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Ji-Sung Park, with money left over.
Whilst we’ve reinvested a minimal amount of money in pinching talents like the da Silvas, Possebon and Macheda, we continually produce our own good quality players.
Jonny Evans made 34 appearances for the club last season, playing against Arsenal and City in the league and both Chelsea games, as well as against Inter Milan and Arsenal in the European Cup. Danny Welbeck made 13 appearances including the FA Cup semi-final and scored three goals. Darron Gibson made 14 appearances last season and scored three goals from the midfield, including that blinder on the final day of the season.
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, David Healy, Danny Higginbotham, Kieran Richardson, Chris Eagles, Richard Eckersley and David Jones, amongst others, are recent former academy players, unearthed by United, who will be playing Premiership football next season. Which other top four club academy can boast anything like that?
Whilst it’s always great to see young players come through the system it isn’t something that can be guaranteed. Just because a player looks full of potential when they’re 16-years-old, it doesn’t mean they’re going to be able to do it on the big stage when they’re in their 20s. So, if we can make a stack of money from selling them to a clubs that better suit their ability, then it should only be seen as a positive thing.
We have produced more first team players than our rivals and we’ve made loads more money than they have from selling academy players on. Of course we’d like to see even more players come through but in an age where football seems to be entirely based on how much money a club has and how many foreigners they buy, it’s good to know that Manchester United can still do things the old fashioned way… which is more than can be said of Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal!
the chelsea academy is shite, possibly with the exception of mancienne coming through. terry was even poached at a very young age from west ham! and think of those three lads chelsea took from leeds a couple of years ago – none of them are anywhere to be seen! in terms of english talent, as Marq says, the rent boys are light years behind! Only Miroslav Stoch seems to be the only lad that chelsea are willing to blood from time to time and even he’s pants!
nicoqb.ya u gotta point.people r going to much ga ga over him.but i feel he can improve besider rio and vida
@tel – you’re missing the point. All other clubs also has an academy, wages for their talents etc. Big difference is that we’re capturing value from our talents where as liverpool, chelsea etc are not.
actually i had huge hopes for ebanks blake, i made him my top striker in Football Manager back when i was a student. I also had Phil Bardsley coming thru the ranks in my team as a CenterBack. Bardsley was another i had very high hopes for.
Speaking about youth, I would love to see the son of our great GK, Schmeichel, wearing our shirt. But now that we have Ben Amos so promising, i dun think that will ever happen sob*
Arsenal u-18 were impressive this season. City manager said there has never been a youth team like that, in terms of physical strength and technique.
Okay, tell me why we shouldn’t count Cesc, Gibbs, etc? Rossi joined United when he was 17 while Gibbs joined Arsenal from Wimbledon when he was 15/16. Richardson was signed from West Ham when he was 16/17. Developmental age starts at 15-16. You “poached” Pique just like we “poached” Cesc. Lee Martin was signed from Wimbledon a year before Gibbs joined us, and he’s also about 3 years older, maybe 2 than Gibbsy. Eagles joined from Watford at a very young age, much like many of our youngsters do.
Recently(from 2005):
Stokes to Sunderland: 2 million
Aliadiere to Boro: 2 million + add-ons
Muamba to Birmingham(4 million) + sell-on clause to Bolton(1 mil): 5 million
Larsson to Birmingham: 1 million
Stuart Taylor(perennial reserve keeper) to Villa: 4 million
Pennant to Birmingham: 2 million(“undisclosed”, but its rumored to be)
Owusu-Abeyie to Spartak Moscow: 2-3 million (rumored, since Arsenal always say undisclosed)
Bentley to Blackburn: 3-4 million
Bentley from Blackburn to Spurs:ADDITIONAL 8.5 million(12.5 total) due to a 50% sell-on clause Arsenal made when selling him to Blackburn
Ryan SMith to Derby: 500,000
mathew Connolly to QPR: 1 million
Justin Hoyte to Boro: 3 million
We’ve always had a pretty shit academy, I will admit. I’m 18 but I know more about Arsenal than most. This group of kids we have right now…quite a few can make it with Arsenal. They play the same type of football as the seniors do, but with a higher work rate/toughness.
Coquelin, Bartley, Wilshere, and Jay Emmanuel Thomas could see some premier league time next season
Well done Pat and well done to the Utd fans for pointing out the fact that many of their players have been poached too.
The reality about most academies is that they are money making machines. Most players get a good footballing education at the likes of Utd or Arsenal but most don’t make the grade. Some disappear and some go on to make good livings a lower division clubs. Some are pushed out cos they’res too many ahead of them but rise to the top a few years later (e.g. Muamba, Rossi, Pique). Despite my admiration for the Arsenal Youth team this year- We’ve all heard it before. Most of them won’t make the grade when push comes to shove- some players develop better than others. A classic example is the Lupoli/ Rossi partnership at Parma youth poached by Arsenal and Man Utd respectively. Ask anyone at Arsenal at the time and Lupoli was really highly rated- higher than Rossi. Look at their careers since- Lupoli struggling at Norwich- Rossi a top class talent? Alot of it had to do with physical development- Lupoli never got the stature.
Lupoli scored 45 in 22 games for Parma, the record in italian youth football. I wish he’d have stayed with us. he wasn’t patient enough and I thought he still had something to prove. Oh well.
@ Pat pretty fair assessment!
Guys i was wondering is Wes fit for the pre season??