PENIS!
Director of Academy Nick Cox is leaving | Set to join Everton as Technical Director
- Thread starter Tom Van Persie
- Start date
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Nik (@Rood), Jamie (@Vault Dweller) and Ed (@That'sHernandez) give their end of season awards out! They celebrate the best players, goals and moments of the season (there were some, honestly) and also give out awards for the worst and most disappointing players/moments of the season.
They then discuss all the latest transfer rumours and get into the potential ins and outs this summer at Old Trafford.
Garnacho and Mainoo?
Im not sure how much involvement he has in signing youth players but would imagine that would have been a part of his role. I thought you had a lot of pretty talented youth in that respect.
I am not sure about signing them, who is involved.
Garnacho and Mainoo have come through but both lack the physical requirements for the PL.
That's the thing, we always hear about the potential talent in our academy and they hardly materialise... it shows our academy is quite poor in that regard, getting players ready for PL football.
Most of them are quite light in that sense.
Cox was heavily involved in Garnacho signing and was the one who convinced him to join.
There you go then. Imagine it may be the same regarding players like Heaven, Chido Obi, Ibragimov etc.?
Obi and Ibragimov yes, Heaven has been attributed to Wilcox as he was a first team signing.
For Obi, Cox has talked about how they found out Obi was actually visiting European clubs with a plan to move so they swooped in to steal.
Who replaces him then? Any news who’s in the frame?
Given how young and early on in their careers they are, this might be a bit harsh, reminds me of Hanson's "you'll never win anything with kids"!
Absolutely. the desire to write off our young player is just dumb. We have let many go, spend hundreds of millions in fees and wages and are no better off. It seems if we don't have the next Messi or Ronaldo on our hands they need to go. If we saw a highlights reel for Garnacho they would be desperate for him. Both players have their faults, but have also delivered plenty, especially Mainoo in big games. Its also super tough for young players in a struggling team with managerial changes and new formations. Unbelievable attitudes from som.
At the moment they do, so they require further work to get them to a PL standard.
But the fact that we can only name 2 that have come through the academy in the last 9 years, shows how poor our academy has been.
Even when we sell academy products all are below 20m in value.
Who has ever mentioned Messi or Ronaldo? The job of being in an academy is to prepare players for the highest level.
We used to be very good at producing PL players and now, we are very poor at that.
Mainoo has delivered and is very talented but his athleticism needs alot of work, why do we need to wait to see if they can play in the PL or not before working on these elements? Surely the academy should be getting players ready for this.
We always hear we have x,y,z in our academy and they never develop. The fact that you can only name 2 players proves my point.
When you look at City, Chelsea, Arsenal all produce PL ready players.
Apart from Mainoo and Garnacho - Henderson, Elanga, Greenwood, Carreras, Kovář, McTominay, Andreas Pereira, Angel Gomes… All good enough to play in the Premier League.
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ArsenalWe consistently have more academy graduates playing in the Premier League than Arsenal. Literally produced over 3x as many minutes in the 23/24 season as Arsenal. And then still had more this season despite McTominay going to Italy (where he won best player in the league, we also have other graduates performing at the top end of big 5 leagues) and doing our best to stop Rashford and Garnacho playing.
It isn’t a bit harsh. It is just pure nonsense. Mainoo has already performed in the PL and at Euros finals but suddenly isn’t PL ready.
Well, you say they are good enough but none Kovar, Greenwood, Carreras, mcTominay got PL moves did they?
This is about Nick Cox not Manutd... so thanks for proving my point.. McTominay, Rashford were way before him...
If you stick to the topic about Nick Cox and not conflate the issue, we have players like Welbeck still playing in the PL, who is a United graduate.
I am talking under Cox we have been very poor, the fact that people can only name 3/4 names proves it.
You laugh at Arsenal... but they have PL players like Iwobi.. ESR, Nketiah and WC player in Saka and a top talent int Nwanyeri coming through.
Aiden Heaven is another player who is PL ready.
No club in England wanted Greenwood for a good reason. Nothing to do with his footballing ability. Carreras is about to move to Real Madrid. McTominay won the Serie A MVP. They’re obviously good enough for PL. What about the rest of the players I mentioned? Conveniently forgot about them as it proves your argument is false.
The thing is, young kids at the academy is not just about football, its about mentality, producing an all round person as well.
No thats fine... we have 3/4 players.. Also, McTominay came through before Cox was appointed head of academy...
I am talking under his tenure, its not that great of a deal losing him.
Manutd have always produced academy players, in recent years where other academies have produced more and United have not just stagnated, regressed.
The fact is we have not progressed under him, instead seen our rivals develop top level footballers year in year out.
So the same as Arsenal who in your opinion have done better?
Arsenal have a WC player in their team in Saka. They have ESR, Nketiah, Heaven all playing in the PL.
They have players like MLS in the first 11.. ignoring players like Iwobi, Martinez, Balogun as well.
How has Balogun proved he’s ready for PL if McTominay, Gomes etc. haven’t?
We have Mainoo, Garnacho, Elanga, Henderson, Pereira, Garner all playing in the PL.
I said IGNORING players like Iwobi, Martinez and Balogun.. meaning I am not counting them.
Exactly, the underage teams have all made huge progress in the period under Cox. We have quite a few players now knocking on the first team door to be included in the squad.
But it’s a bit silly for anyone to think that unless they walk into the first team and are instantly stars that the academy has been crap. What he’s looking for is actually the exception to the rule. Any underage coach will tell you if we can get 1 to the first team then we’ve done well.
The other thing that’s been missed out is the under resourcing that’s been taking place, keeping the equipment and the pitches up to scratch for development.
All in all Cox has done a great job.
Good riddance. The academy has been serving crap for way too long now.
Recently listened to Nick Cox on the High Performance Podcast - and he came across as a grounded humble intelligent football man.
His role wasn't purely focused on player development, he changed the ethos and carried on the tradition of utd ensuring young players are mentally prepared for a career in football. It's about more than just shaping a player to move up to our first team. Think of how turbulent the club has been in all his time here and appreciate the consistent work he has done.
Wish him well for the future. Absolute crazy the hate on here towards him - our youth teams from before his time to now are so much better.
His role wasn't purely focused on player development, he changed the ethos and carried on the tradition of utd ensuring young players are mentally prepared for a career in football. It's about more than just shaping a player to move up to our first team. Think of how turbulent the club has been in all his time here and appreciate the consistent work he has done.
Wish him well for the future. Absolute crazy the hate on here towards him - our youth teams from before his time to now are so much better.