Why United’s babes are 30 points off City
IN THE main corridor leading to the academy changing rooms at Carrington, images of some of Manchester United’s greatest players leap out at the young players.
As they tie up their boots before training, they can look up to pictures of David Beckham, Duncan Edwards, Ryan Giggs, Sir Bobby Charlton and Norman Whiteside. All of them progressed through United’s academy.
This evening, seven miles down the road from the Theatre of Dreams, the studs will rattle the corridors of Altrincham’s Moss Lane ahead of an FA Youth Cup fourth-round tie against Chelsea.
Paul McGuinness, son of former United manager Wi l f , is in charge of an Under 18s team who have lost their last 10 matches in the Premier League Northern Division. Nobody gives them much of a chance against the defending champions Chelsea.
United’s academy is in bits, with chronic under investment one of principal reasons that the Under 18s are a staggering 30 points behind Manchester City in the league.
The Under 21s, coached by Warren Joyce, are still on course for the Premier League title, but the deeper concerns lie with the younger age groups.
United’s academy costs £3.5million a year to run, woefully shy of the £ 12m pumped into City’s set-up and the £7m Chelsea invest in their lavish academy system.
Coaches are paid £20,000 a year at United, around half of that being paid to the very best at City. They have allowed their rivals to steam ahead, to pick up the best young talent in the North West and beyond.
At huge expense, City put them through independent grammar school, preparing them for a future outside of the game in case they do not make it.
United are labouring, with an air of apathy sweeping the academy after years of neglect.
Louis van Gaal is well aware that standards have slipped, standing up at a recent Premier League managers’ meeting to demand better coaches in this country. Arsene Wenger, critical of the standards at Arsenal’s Hale End academy, seconded him.
United’s academy has become an afterthought, with the emphasis on sponsorship and marketing deals to fund the massive transfer fees and wages that are swallowed up by the first team.
To get so much as a new set of balls, bibs and cones, the purchase order needs to be seen by that many sets of eyes at Old Trafford that academy staff have given up pleading for investment.
The club’s technical board, executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and the club’s owners, the Glazer family, are across every item of expenditure. A new order can take three months to be signed off, a ludicrous amount of time for a club ranked third in the Deloitte money list on Wednesday with annual revenues of £400.3m.
The shadow of the Class of ’ 92 hangs heavy over this club, a one-off generation who went on to win countless Premier League titles before finally landing the big one, the Champions League, under Sir Alex Ferguson in 1999.
To bring this academy back into line will take years of planning and funding, something United have started to look at after poking their noses over the neighbours’ fence.
Tottenham’s academy director John McDermott, a childhood United fan, turned down the position in December because he is on to a good thing at White Hart Lane.
Tottenham’s youth team were well beaten by Middlesbrough in the FA Youth Cup last week, a reminder that the competition can still spring the occasional surprise. This evening it is down to United to pull off a shock.