Sunday’s 3-0 win over Newcastle was the 3,600th consecutive game that United had former youth team players involved in the squad. Jonny Evans, who joined the club when he was 9-years-old, and Tom Cleverley, who joined when he was 12, both got their names on the scoresheet.
Sir Alex Ferguson has hailed the work we do with bringing through young players and reckons we’re not short of achieving what Barcelona have with their youth players.
“Over the years, we’ve been as good as anyone in the country, probably the best, at doing that,” he told Inside United. “You look at the way Barcelona have produced players and we’re not far off that. We’ve had so many players come through down the years and, more recently, we’ve had the likes of Danny Welbeck, Tom Cleverley and Rafael come into the first team. Then you’ve got players like Ryan Tunnicliffe, Jesse Lingard and Michael and Will Keane, who are all part of a successful youth team. They’re progressing very well. So we’re still good at it [developing young players] and we enjoy seeing them come into the first-team squad.”
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