To those questioning whether Youth is one of our values,
Here is a list of players who have played for the academy and then made more than 50 appearances for the first team:
- Arthur Albiston
- John Aston Sr.
- David Beckham
- George Best
- Clayton Blackmore
- Jackie Blanchflower
- Shay Brennan
- Wes Brown
- Francis Burns
- Nicky Butt
- Roger Byrne
- Johnny Carey
- Bobby Charlton
- Tom Cleverley
- Mike Duxbury
- Duncan Edwards
- Jonny Evans
- Darren Fletcher
- Bill Foulkes
- Ryan Giggs
- Johnny Giles
- Brian Greenhoff
- Mark Hughes
- Adnan Januzaj
- Brian Kidd
- David McCreery
- Wilf McGuinness
- Sammy McIlroy
- Johnny Morris
- Gary Neville
- Phil Neville
- Jimmy Nicholl
- Jimmy Nicholson
- John O'Shea
- Stan Pearson
- David Pegg
- David Sadler
- Paul Scholes
- Nobby Stiles
- Dennis Viollet
- Danny Welbeck
- Billy Whelan
- Norman Whiteside
Here is a list of players who came through the academy, had decent enough careers, but we either didn't give them a game or we decided they weren't good enough before they hit 50 appearances:
- Ray Baartz
- Phil Bardsley
- Mark Bosnich
- Robbie Brady
- Fraizer Campbell
- Craig Cathcart
- James Chester
- Hugh Curran
- Danny Drinkwater
- Eamon Dunphy
- Magnus Wolff Eikrem
- Corry Evans
- Darron Gibson
- Keith Gillespie
- Don Givens
- Shaun Goater
- David Healy
- Tom Heaton
- Danny Higginbotham
- David Johnson
- Michael Keane
- Joshua King
- Jon Macken
- Paddy McNair
- Paul McShane
- Alan McLoughlin
- Philip Mulryne
- Colin Murdock
- Peter O'Sullivan
- Anthony Pilkington
- Gerard Piqué
- David Platt
- Paul Pogba
- Kieran Richardson
- Jimmy Rimmer
- Jonny Rödlund
- Giuseppe Rossi
- Robbie Savage
- Jackie Scott
- Ryan Shawcross
- Paddy Sloan
- Jonathan Spector
- Michael Stewart
- Marc Wilson
- Ron-Robert Zieler
In over 100 years, we have made 2 or 3 big mistakes by letting youngsters go too early (recently Paul Pogba) but how many of the above do we really think would have gone on to become legends of the club? How many proved they were world class after they left us? Not many.
At the moment, here are some of the players in our squad who have come through the academy:
- Jesse Lingard (89 apps)
- Scott McTominay (19 apps)
- Andreas Pereira (9 apps)
- Marcus Rashford (132 apps)
As you can see, we're still giving our youngsters opportunities, with Jesse and Marcus having plenty of game time.
Since 1937, a youth team graduate has made every single match day squad for the first team. Almost 4,000 consecutive games. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
Two of the world’s most famous groups of young players, the Class of 92 and the Busby Babes, both played for our club.
And as you can see in the list at the top, we've produced plenty more great players and fans favourites.
I can’t be bothered to keep going, and I doubt anyone has read this far, but if you have, you’ll understand that although the standard of young players varies year by year, throughout our history we've been very good at giving them opportunities. It's what Manchester United is all about and is one of our key values.
@Sky1981 @Siorac