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!
Man Utd News 24/7
It’s a money making farm – it takes all the promising young players from the Greater Manchester area and trys to make something of them.
Those who are good enough make it, those who just miss out make us some money, those who don’t make it, well.. we tried!
Great article Scott… really brings to what the youth setup is helping us to achieve. To know that the above named high profile first teamers were completely funded by the academy is great.
how much of the 36 mill has went on wages for these players over the years they have played for us??
i think if you are to subtract that from the total sales value we would have very little left
@tel
It pays for itself though, and if every five years we only get ONE player through that makes it, how many £millions has that saved us?
richard eckersley should be added to the list he just signed for burnley
Shit. Eckersley signs for Burnley.
http://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/page/LatestHeadlines/0,,10413~1722908,00.html
I thought he was better tyhan Rafael (who can’t actually defend).
A little unfair for us to include Rossi and Pique if Barca can’t include Clichy, Cesc et al…. But a good point you’ve made…
^^ I meant Arsenal can’t include these players..
From what Sir Alex was saying we may well see Drinkwater and Matty James this season.
Off topic – Typical of that cunt Kenyon, he may be following the money to Citeh as well!
@NicoQB Rafael is a lot younger tho, and his defending will improve.
Nicoqb – How many chances would Eckersley have got at United though with Rafael, Wes, Gaz and O’shea still considered above him in the pecking order. Bit unfair mate about Rafael, I know what you mean but for an 18 year old the kid oozes quality. His defending will improve with age and experience.
If they dont make the standard at Old Trafford then they are good enough for City. Hehe!
Good article Scott.
For 200k – some pub teams might be interested!
Micky – You beat me to it!
Its funny how since Sir Alex said no more spending there are fuck all rumours in the press!
Burnley sign Richard Eckersley on a 3 year deal.
Good Luck. I never thought he would make it here but he’s gone to another Premiership team. How much did we get for him
Kenyon is an egg head cunt, as is that prick Gary Cook watching him embrace Tevez at the Wastelands sums him up, publiticy seeking twat.
@ROJO RED ROT ROUGE
well said,if they dont make the cut here ,they can always earn big bucks at the wastelands
Go Cristiano!!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1199824/Only-Ronaldo-Cristiano-refuses-wear-C-Real-Madrid-fans-cash-namesakes-shirt.html?ITO=1490
Not sure we should be getting on our high horse about Fabregas et al…didn’t we “poach” Rossi, Pique and Martin (and Macheda, Petrucci etc)?
I’m actually really proud of how our academy has adapted to the “45-minute rule” – we now have a truly global scouting network which we can be proud of. Some of these lads look ready to step up (especially Welbeck) and I’m really excited about seeing the younguns this season!
agree wid micky,rafael will improve playing wid rio and vida.dnt frget he is jst 19.remember how he kept robinho quiet at the wastelands
Nico, he has gone I have no interest in him now.
@KingEric
Yeah, I beat you to it, but only just!
No rumours means no speculation which means prices drop. We all know Fergie talks out of his arse sometimes regarding transfers and for good reason.. I’ll believe we’re not getting anyone else in when the transfer window shuts.
I have a Lada Riva for sale with 240k miles on the clock.
I parked it up at Wastelands whilst I took a piss, when I came back there was a note on it saying saying someone wanted to buy it for 36million.
All I have to do is get in touch with a Mr Cook on 079845321.
Going back up there later with an old leather jacket I got on holiday in Argentina that I couldnt shift on Ebay. One of the sleeves is a bit melted though.
Do you think someone will give me 25.5million for it?
@Micky – If he was english or european, I am pretty sure his defending would improve, but the fact that he’s south american, I’m not so sure…
And Eckersley was Salford born and bred too…
@KingEric – yeah, from a professional perspective the move makes perfect sense. I just thought the kid looked tough as nails, some kind of young Stuart Pearce…
Why did you sell Eckersley?? He was such a talent!!
@NicoQB I think the opposite, I think if the lad was from Salford and couldn’t tackle at 19 then there’d be a problem. The fact he’s Brazilian, only been here a year and can’t tackle, tells me that’s he needs to learn to tackle but he’ll adapt.
he rejected a new contract and because of his age the fee will be sorted out in a tribunal ive no idea wot that will be, wot is he worth?
i personally think richie da laet has a bright future too along with rafael and fabio.people forget da lats impressive debut against hull.he can play at any position at the back
Heh. Good read. Although I’d be happier if more of the young kids from the academy can fare well at the club itself instead of moving elsewhere.
add beckham too that and we are laughing
Cesc Fabregas and Gerard Pique both came from Barcelona- Pique was older than Cesc when he joined you. So how can he make your list after you specifically say Cesc doesn’t count?
Black knight and Jonny – I’m including the transfer sales of Pique and Rossi but the point is we’re still producing our own, like Welbeck, Gibson and Evans. Who do Arsenal have on the ranks that they have produced? That Jack Wiltshere…? I don’t recall any of their own players in the Premiership last season but then I didn’t pay an awful amount of attention to Arsenal last season tbh.
Rafael played loads more games than Gibbs last season, for example, but I was putting the focus on the players we’ve actually produced, not the players we’ve brought in from other established academies, like Possebon, Macheda etc. You could say Macheda won us the title last season but the point of the article was not what the young players we bought achieved, rather the ones we’ve brought through.
… – I wasn’t getting on my high horse about Fabregas. I explicitly mentioned the players we pinched from other clubs.
Ebanks Blake is a man utd youth academy product!!!
i didnt know dat.he is scoring for fun for wolves.
Our academy has never been great for bringing through players from very young ages. But it depends what you mean by produced- Kieran Gibbs was 15 when he joined Arsenal. Would you include Jermaine Pennant in the list of people who don’t count, he was 15 I believe when he signed. Bentley, Upson, Muamba, Sidwell, O’Hara- I’d be willing to bet Arsenal have made a similar amount from selling on youth players in recent years.
So much for being a Salford born die hard red.
The guys stabbed us in the back and shitted on us.
Something tells me he knew he wasn’t good enough to wear the red shirt and didn’t have the balls to fight for his place.
Shame on the gutless bastard. Good riddance.
Ebanks Blake was amazing for us in reserves how could you not know he played for united. he got injured and left for first team football
Interesting article but I don’t see why we have to compare our academy’s success to our rivals. Just seems like a bitter snipe at Arsenal and an excuse to start an online argument.
It’s disappointing that Eckersley didn’t get a decent chance at a first-team spot, I guess it’s just bad timing. Don’t think Fergie could have passed up the chance to sign the Da Silva brothers in the hope that Rich would have made it. Good luck to the kid, hope he does well.
@in_SAF_i_trust
sorry mate i followed utd from 2001,but stating following closely from 2005.now i have bcome such a fan dat i stat getting butterflies in my stomach since the morning when we play.
You cant really class Neville as an academy sale, as he was sold as a first team player after playing hundreds of games over several years for the club.
Rossi and Pique arent really academy players, they came from abroad when aged 16, in the same way possebon, Macheda etc have come in now.
The reasoning for thsi is the silly 30 mile rule that restricts UK based players being allowed to join the academy.
What also needs to be factored, is the development costs and wages involved. For every player thats gone for £1.5 mliion, that barely covers the cost of the players wages over a 3 year period and the cost of development.
You will also find that Arsenals and Liverpools academy turns over a similar volume of players, many of whom are sold for similar fees.
A large chunk of these academy players are stolen from under the noses of other clubs.
If one player graduates from the academy to the first team each year out of a bunch of 20 players, then thats a positive.
In this day and age, a player has to be first team ready by the age of 20/21.
@AIG Alex Is God
How old are you?
I think over the past 4 years Arsenal have made money only by selling young players.You need to win to buy big unless you are stationed in Spain.Chelsea who cares about money there and scouseland is the dumbest place alive.But I would have been happy if we wouldn’t have sold Rossi,Pique and Campbell.Rossi esp…….but they have gone onto greater things and well we have done the usual of winning trophies…..This year can very well be the year of academy
@micky.
20 years.why mate.
@AIG Alex Is God
Just wondering..
Why did you start following football so late? Not calling you less of a fan or owt, just wondering more than anything
I’m only 22 myself but I can’t remember not being a United fan ever, it was forced upon (quite rightly too!) rather than me finding football so to speak
@micky
I live in india which is a cricket crazy country.till 200! i never watched football.then i watched 2001-02 season little and gradually my intrest increased.in 2004-05 wen chelsea were dominating i still supported united.i remember crying after the milan and barca defeat (CL 2007 and dis years final)and not being able to watch the chelsea CL final shootout last year
now i dont watch any cricket.only footballa and the midweek and CL matches here are late night at 1230 and 1 30 in the night.even though i have college at 7 i still stay awake and watch.
@Micky
When you look at most good/great defenders, they all had the basic defending skills right from the start. The aspect in which they progress throughout the years is that of awareness, coolness on the ball and in defending and responsibilty.
On the other hand, look at Heinze: He was a tough, energetic defender, but was poor at man marking, got skinned way too easily, and dived in tackles too easily.
Progress with experience is never an acquired fact.
@NicoQB
u say rafael not good defender.what wrong has he done to prove that.he has been excellent in the manchester derby and was decent whenever he was asked to play
.heinze was rubbish.no pace and i still see for real wen he sees players outpacing him,he sleeps on the ball to prevent them from getting the ball.of course he gets yellow card for his troubles.
good article, but as well as rossi and pique, ebanks blake (cambridge) and richardson (west ham) were also poached
Another two english players leave the club campble and eckersley, i think we shud be keeping our english players wiv this 6+5 rule coming in2 effect soon.
@aig alex is god
Yes the standard response is to point to the city match where to be fair, Rafael was very good.
But in many other matches his positional sense was a times shocking, and while he’s good going forward, let’s not forget that a defender’s first task is, would you believe it, defend.
He’s still got much to go before he’s on the same level of reliability as Brown and even O’shea.
But I’m not dissing him, I still think he’s very promising, just not as much as some make him to be.
My feeling is the list is a little bias, but only against Arsenal. They have pretty much the same system as us, but the players to come out of our academy that have been sold tend to be higher profile, Rossi, Pique, etc.
-> So I say in the top 4, we just about edged Arsenal. Liverpool & Chelsea are lights years away
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??