Given that United academy have produced a grand total of one home grown key player in the last 30 years, I was hoping that this pipedream of relying on the academy would have disappeared by now
Do you understand football clubs and their relationship with local communities.
If you look down the league all the way to non league, Football clubs are part of the community NOT to just buy players from anywhere and win.
Football clubs go to local schools to promote football.
Football clubs develop local young players.
Football clubs have initiatives for the local communities that are not always just about football.
Now you can argue that the higher up the league you go the less localised it gets e.g. Prem clubs develop players from all over not just local)
However the same principles apply e.g. Man Utd scout allover the world howwver my kids have someone from Manchester United come and do Football in PE with them once a week and this is a primary school in the greater Manchester area.
You can have a great academy without relying on it for the first team. City is a prime example. They have a fantastic academy but they sell a lot of the players once they are developed (they are still cheats though).