{"id":901144,"date":"2026-04-17T18:19:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/901144\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T18:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:19:22","slug":"manchester-united-u18s-vs-crystal-palace-live-updates-from-fa-youth-cup-semi-final-fixture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/901144\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United U18s vs Crystal Palace LIVE: Updates from FA Youth Cup semi-final fixture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">When Sir Jim Ratcliffe singled out the Manchester United academy as having &#8220;slipped&#8221; with some of his customary direct feedback in October, he highlighted the appointment of Stephen Torpey as evidence of change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Torpey is the latest Old Trafford recruit from the Manchester City blueprint Ratcliffe so admires, and that introduction from the United co-owner was pretty clear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cThe academy has really slipped at Manchester United,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;You need the academy to be producing talent all the time. It helps you financially. That\u2019s not a light switch. You don\u2019t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">United&#8217;s first team will play just 40 games this season. An unusually sparse schedule at first team level has led to heightened interest in the club&#8217;s academy, as has the emergence of young talents like JJ Gabriel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Torpey wants to develop some of the country&#8217;s best young players at Carrington. Gabriel, who has scored 23 goals in 25 appearances for the U18s this season, fits that billing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/sport\/football\/man-uniteds-new-academy-chief-33601420\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Read the interview here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_GettyImages-2237149480-3.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Sir Jim Ratcliffe singled out the Manchester United academy as having &#8220;slipped&#8221; with some of his customary&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,206144,393,4884,2465,17092,423,16,15],"class_list":["post-901144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-darren-fletcher","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-united-academy","tag-manchester-united-fc","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116421431628665563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}