When it comes to giving youth a chance in the Premier League, Manchester United lead the way. And then some.
“I feel like at United it’s very much in the history that they play young players, going all the way back to the Busby Babes,” said Kobbie Mainoo in a recent interview with GQ magazine. “There’s big writing up on the wall (at Carrington, the training ground) saying, ‘If they’re good enough, they’re old enough’.”
United’s track record with academy players has become a thing of wonder. In a statistic first discovered by historian Tony Park, the club have named at least one homegrown player within their matchday squad since a 1-0 defeat against Fulham in October 1937. This record covers 87 years and more than 4,250 matches (head here for a 2019 piece on how the record came to be).
The club’s accolade is made all the more impressive given Park’s definition of a “homegrown player” is more stringent than current Premier League classifications. United have had plenty of players who have spent three years at the club between the ages of 15 and 21 (ie: Cristiano Ronaldo), but there is something special about those that make it into the first team after graduating from the academy. (Amad’s status as homegrown would not count as an academy graduate under Park’s original classification. The 22-year-old has spent three years at the club and featured for them in under-23s matches before entering the first team. However, he made a senior team debut for Italy’s Atalanta before joining United.)
Duncan Edwards, Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best, Norman Whiteside, Mark Hughes, Gary Neville, David Beckham and Paul Scholes are just a handful of the homegrown players who became club legends. The Class of ’92 were nurtured at The Cliff, United’s previous training ground, before taking the Premier League and Champions League by storm.
Today, United’s Carrington HQ has become one of the world’s most recognisable and well-respected football academies.
There has been much debate and discussion on how best to define “The Manchester United Way”, but if such a thing exists, it is best exemplified by how the club develop and trust young talent. In the 4-2 win against Sheffield United in April this year, Ethan Wheatley became the 250th academy graduate to make his first-team debut for United. The club encountered several difficulties — on and off the pitch — during that season, yet manager Erik ten Hag carried on club traditions and developed young players when possible.
No Premier League club gave a higher percentage (28.2 per cent) of league minutes to homegrown players in 2023-24 than United.
Wheatley, Jonny Evans, Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay, Alejandro Garnacho, Mainoo, Willy Kambwala and Omari Forson were all homegrown United players who featured in the Premier League last season, while Tom Heaton, who came through the academy, then spent 11 years with other clubs before rejoining his boyhood team in 2021, offered veteran experience and expertise during training sessions as the club’s third-choice goalkeeper.
“There is a game model here,” said Ten Hag to Sky Sports towards the end of last season. “How do you think Garnacho and Mainoo are able to come up? That’s because it was one of my objectives from the previous leadership team to bring that in.”
A widespread injury crisis may have played a role in how many minutes Ten Hag gave to homegrown players, but Carrington produces football talent at a rate few academies can match. United Under-18s are top of their league table, with nine wins in nine matches. During Ten Hag’s 128 games in charge over two and a bit seasons, he gave first-team debuts to seven academy graduates (Wheatley, Garnacho, Kambwala, Mainoo, Forson, Toby Collyer and Dan Gore.)
That clear pathway between academy and first team has continued into 2024-25, where United again lead the way among Premier League teams for the proportion of minutes (22.1 per cent) given to their former academy players.
“Youth development is an important part of the lifeblood of Manchester United, running through all the great moments in the club’s history, and it is the responsibility of every new generation of academy players and staff to keep it going,” academy director Nick Cox told The Athletic’s Talk of the Devils podcast in February.
Carrington’s strength serves not only United but other teams, with Dean Henderson now at Crystal Palace, Danny Welbeck at Brighton, Anthony Elanga at Nottingham Forest, James Garner at Everton and many more. The early months of this season have seen Napoli fans delighted with new signing Scott McTominay’s energy and industry (the midfielder has three goals and two assists in 10 games for the Serie A club), while Angel Gomes is playing for Lille in France’s Ligue 1 and the Champions League, and made his full England debut in September.
United’s investment in their academy helps not only the first team, but also the accounts department. Because of Premier League profitability and sustainability rules (PSR), academy graduates are seen as more valuable as they can be sold for pure profit.
“You have to generate some money in, to be able to spend that money back out. From a player trading point of view, as well as from a commercial perspective,” Dan Ashworth told journalists in early September. The new United sporting director also said one of the “unintended consequences” of PSR and financial fair play (FFP) considerations is the gradual decline in one-club men in the game, or homegrown players who stay at bigger clubs for an extended period of time.
The departure of Kambwala, Forson, McTominay, Hannibal Mejbri and others affected the number of homegrown players Ten Hag could choose from at the start of his second and last full season, but the recent arrival of Ruben Amorim as his successor is unlikely to change the club’s reliance on homegrown talents.
Evans, Rashford, Garnacho and Mainoo are all established at first-team level, and the club’s fluid financial situation means the new head coach could be more inclined to look to the academy for players who could be shaped into his proposed 3-4-3 system as the season progresses.
It is too early to say whether promising academy kids such as Harry Amass, Jayce Fitzgerald or Ethan Ennis will play many (if any) minutes in the senior team in the months ahead. Sixteen-year-old Chido Obi Martin has looked impressive during his outings for United’s under-18 side. However, the striker — signed from Arsenal this summer — is viewed more as a long-term prospect than a fourth-choice striker who could contribute to the senior team this season.
That said, Amorim may be inclined to monitor the development of Gore and Collyer and their suitability for the central midfield pivot in his preferred formation. The 39-year-old also has a history of reshaping young wingers from the academy at Lisbon’s Sporting CP into wing-backs who are better capable of serving the first team. Geny Catamo and Geovany Quenda underwent this recalibration under him in the Portuguese capital.
It remains to be seen whether Amorim has the bandwidth to look at academy players before deeming them suitable. United’s technical director Jason Wilcox will play a crucial role in making sure that whatever game model is decided upon going forward includes a pathway for Carrington’s best and brightest, while first-team assistant coach Darren Fletcher is known for offering guidance to young players breaking into the senior squad.
The academy is the glue for many of the good things at United, and it is likely to stay that way for years and generations to come.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
