One of the proudest records in Man United’s history is not under threat but it will become tougher for academy graduates to make an impact this season.
Samuel joined the Manchester Evening News in 2014 and is the Chief Manchester United writer. He has broken exclusives on Jose Mourinho’s appointment, the re-signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking, the club’s interest in Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag, as well as numerous other transfers and team news. He has represented the MEN on the BBC, Sky News, Sky Sports News, TalkSport, Radio 5 Live, CNN and various other media outlets worldwide.
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Mainoo and Fredricson on the bench at Grimsby
Sunday’s Manchester derby will mark the 4,326th United first team match with a homegrown player in their squad. Before Ruben Amorim sat down at Carrington on Friday, it was forgivable to think the sequence was under more threat than his position.
“I don’t want to be the guy that broke that record,” Amorim stressed. “If you see the past of Manchester United, it’s built on kids that grew up here and stayed here for a long time. I think that should be our goal in the future. So I will try to maintain that.”
In the 25-man senior squad Amorim has assembled, there are now only four academy members. The 39-year-old Tom Heaton has not played since February 2023, Tyler Fredricson may not play for United again after his first half horror show at Grimsby Town, Chido Obi has not had a kick this season and Kobbie Mainoo last started a Premier League match in May.
Mainoo missed four months of last season through injury. In the hypothetical scenario that every United player bar Mainoo is available for a match, Amorim could feasibly pick a 20-man squad of Bayindir, Lammens, Dalot, Mazraoui, Yoro, De Ligt, Maguire, Martinez, Heaven, Shaw, Dorgu, Fernandes, Casemiro, Ugarte, Mount, Amad, Cunha, Mbeumo, Zirkzee and Sesko.
Heaven and Diego Leon, though teenagers, do not qualify as academy members. It was a grey area when Louis van Gaal’s debutants were totted up. Reece James and Regan Poole did not qualify as they never played in the youth team.
Amorim has put two ‘keepers on the bench before, as Erik ten Hag occasionally used to. It would be a cop-out if the only academy representative in a United matchday squad is Heaton, who turns 40 in April.
United have won only three of the past 11 Manchester derbies and two were decided by academy products. With Matheus Cunha and Mason Mount injured for Sunday’s derby, Mainoo is in line for a recall.
Since the Busby Babes, there has always been an academy poster boy through the decades. United’s top five appearance makers – Ryan Giggs, Sir Bobby Charlton, Bill Foulkes, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville – are graduates. George Best is 15th in the list. Sammy McIlroy and Arthur Albiston are in the top 25.
Every United manager post-Ferguson has had an academy legacy: David Moyes’s was Adnan Januzaj, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard came under Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho saw something in Scott McTominay, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer championed Mason Greenwood, Ralf Rangnick brought Anthony Elanga in from the cold while Erik ten Hag had Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho.
Concern was briefly voiced that United’s academy run, which dates back to October 1937, could be jeopardised by Van Gaal amid the Van Gaalactico summer of 2014 when Angel di Maria and Radamel Falcao were headline signings. Van Gaal ended up doling out 12 debutants to academy members, ranging from Saidy Janko to Rashford.
Solskjaer trumped Van Gaal, affording names as obscure as D’Mani Mellor and Will Fish a chance. There were six academy debutants against Kazakhstani side Astana alone. After Solskjaer left, United sources were dismissive of his penchant for granting debuts to talents with little or no chance of breaking into the first team squad.
United’s XI in Kazakhstan in 2019 consisted almost entirely of academy graduates
Mourinho and Ten Hag were more selective, though the latter unfathomably promoted Omari Forson to the starting XI for the home defeat to Fulham in February 2024. Rangnick was also particular and championed Elanga, Garnacho, Hannibal Mejbri and Alvaro Carreras.
It was sobering to hear Dan Ashworth opine that the era of the one-club player was effectively over a year ago. Ashworth, two months into his brief tenure as United’s sporting director, was philosophically addressing the departure of McTominay, a sale that has become more contentious since he won the Scudetto with Napoli, was named Serie A’s MVP and nominated for the Ballon d’Or.
The former United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was dismayed that the club had only two Ballon d’Or nominees in 2013 (Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney). They did have two Golden Boy nominees last year: Mainoo and Garnacho.
Garnacho and Mainoo were Ten Hag’s academy legacies
Garnacho is gone and Mainoo was intent on going before United blocked him last month. He has started in a derisory 16 of Amorim’s 46 matches in charge but a recall is in the offing against City.
Three of the debutants under Amorim have come from the academy: Obi, Fredricson and Harry Amass. Amass did not train with the first team at all in pre-season and eventually joined Sheffield Wednesday on loan last Monday.
With Noussair Mazraoui fit again, Fredricson is back in the stands. Obi, not 18 until late November, is having to bide his time in the under 21s, for whom he has scored two goals in two starts.
Fredricson made his debut last season
Obi removed United from his Instagram bio last month. He has since restored it and he is not the first teenage footballer to act in a puerile manner. United have two strikers they invested more than £100million ahead of him and Obi has not set the world alight in his eight senior appearances. He has to bide his time.
“We all know there’s probably only two or three strikers in the world who get two goals in every three games,” the under 21 coach Travis Binnion told the MEN. “If you’re used to scoring two goals in every game, then recognising what the role is, how you have to go around it takes a little bit of time. He is dying to be a footballer.
“He is hungry. And he’s still learning the game, learning how to project himself and learning how to play within a team, the club’s shape and system, so there’s still lots for him to do.
Obi scored two goals in Hong Kong on the post-season tour
“The key is he wants to play, he wants to do well and wants to train. He could train every day if he could.”
United are undergoing a change of identity. Vital academy products have become sellable assets (McTominay’s last start was in the 2024 FA Cup final) as they strive to comply with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules. A club famed for their wing play does not use conventional wingers as they dance to the tune of Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 and there will be a new Old Trafford in the 2030s.
Eleven academy talents were included in Amorim’s maiden pre-season squad but he is not one for gimmes. Dermot Mee, Will Murdock, Jack Fletcher and Reece Munro did not get a kick in the United States. Murdock enjoyed his work experience as Andre Onana was unfit.
Bendito Mantato returned to the glamour of a mid-August friendly at Tamworth. Ethan Williams, a scorer in Chicago, came back down to earth on these shores with a Monday night at Middlesbrough.
In a season where United could have as few as 40 fixtures, that first team ceiling could be impregnable for academy members. At least one will always be on the teamsheet, though.