It was deserved. The competition structures for the Academy and Junior teams aren't great, and basically the whole setup shutdown for covid so it wasn't obvious where we'd stand at the start of the season, but we're in line to win our (Northern) league and we've beaten Chelsea and Arsenal in competition this season. Given that, like the first team, the whole of United's U21/reserve structure has only existed since 2018, and almost all the players grew up in our junior teams, we've obviously got people doing good work.
The U16 teams have been around for longer, and are run by the MU Foundation (United's community/charity umbrella) Our U14s and U16s have won their (NW) Leagues this season - against teams like City/Liverpool/Everton. More to do, particularly where resources impact our diversity/inclusion work - but a good base to build from.
It's worth noting that when we did first setup the women's team, we actually put a lot of effort into bringing our own club trained players back from other clubs. The returnees included current first teamers like Ella Toone, Millie Turner, Katie Zelem, Kirsty Hanson.