It's 4276 Matches With Academy player in a row

Manchester United is something that will always be connected to Academy. Its inside the DNA of the club and part of its identity. 30 Oct 1937, a match against Fulham. Just a regular match in the second division. The club lost the match by 1-0. On this day something special started. Since then, The team contains at least one player that was promoted to the senior team from the Academy. Since then the story of the academy was written in the history of the club and is still being written.

Since then a lot of great players came from the Academy. Bobby Charlton, George Best, Ryan Giggs and all of Class 92’ with Beckham, The Neville brothers, Paul Scholes till these days when we see players such as Mason Greenwood play for the first team.

At the 80’s It was Norman Whiteside that came from the academy to the first team to break a lot of records. He was the first player to score in the FA cup final, youngest player to score in the League Cup, youngest academy player to score for Man United and The youngest player to play in the World Cup by representing his home country, Northern Ireland.

This is what is Man United is all about. When a new manager comes he knows he will have to use these players. During the years the academy have just developed more and more.

A very historic quote made by former Liverpool player and a pundit in the Match of the day, “you will never win a thing with kids” after Sir Alex decided to say goodbye to players such as Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis and stay with his Academy players. It was one season After Man United lost the championship to Blackburn Rovers. United lost the Match to Aston Villa 3-1 which triggered this quote of Hansen.

Sir Alex showed the Hansen was wrong and at the end of that season United finished in the top of the league in addition to the FA cup trophy in their pockets.

Manchester United Manager , Scott Duncan, was one of the first to believe that a youth team that will play in the Manchester local league will help a lot of young players to get the chance to show their skills and to gain more physicality to their bodies.

In 1938, Man United developed the Manchester United Junior Athletic Club. In the 50’s A lot of good players were developed at the club. Duncan Edwards, Eddie Colman, Billy Whelan, David Pegg which lost their lives on the crush in 1958.

During the 60’s a new team had to be born. Players like George Best Bobby Noble, John Fitzpatrick and Jimmy Rimmer broke in to the first team and were part of the huge win in the Europoean Cup in 1968 over Benfica. Best even scored a goal in that match. These young stars who played under the legendary manager, Sir Matt Busby, got the nickname “The Busby Babes”. The 70’s and the 80’s are not remembered as a great years for the club. But still, amazing players such as Norman Whiteside and Mark Hughes were coming from the youth and broke into the first team becoming one of the best players in the club. When Sir Alex came, He decided to go hand to hand with the youth and build a new team. A team that won everything time after time. It was with the help of incoming transfers that lead those teams such as Bryan Robson and later on Eric Cantona and Roy Keane. The Pick arrived in 1999 When the club won it all. The Champions League, The FA Cup and The Premier League. In times when players move from club to another every year. Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville stayed their all career at this club. From kids to retirement. These players will always remembered as legends at the club for all their contribution. During the 2000’s the scouting department developed a lot and was expanded to bring young players abroad. Players such as Paul Pogba that left the club and came back with a world record fee of purchase. It was harder to bring young players from around the UK because players had to leave close to the city of the club before they were signing. Today there are some great talents that came from France, Spain, Norway and of course, from all over the UK. More than 80 years passed and the connection between the Academy to the first team is getting even closer and stronger.

Special Date worth Mentioning

26 Apr 1965 Man United host Arsenal at Old Trafford. This match ended with the score of 3-1. George Best, winner of the Ballon D'or and One of the greatest Man United player in the hisory scored the first goal. Managed by Sir Matt Busby Man United held the flag of the academy. This was the 1000th match with an academy player in a row. One Year later Bobby Charlton, another academy player, will be part of the English team that will win the World Cup. The first and only one for England.

21 Mar 1984 Man United winning an amazing victory against on of the best clubs in europe, Barcelona. It was in the Quarter Finals of the Cup Winners Cup. On The Spanish side, Diego Armando Maradona. On The English side, Bryan Robson, Frank Stapelton who scored the goals and joined them players such as Graeme Hogg, Arthur Albiston, Norman Whiteside and Mark Hughes who were promoted from the academy to the first team. This was also the 2000 match in a row with an academy player in the team.

30 Apr 2002 The 3000 match was against the German Team Bayer Leverkusen. The match ended in a draw of 1-1. Roy Keane scored for the reds and Oliver Neuville to the German side. It was a match in the UEFA Champions league Semi Final which ended in a disappointing result at the end as the German side qualified to the match in the final against Real Madrid. In that match Man United played with 4 players coming from the academy. Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Wes Brown.

15 Dec 2019, Man United celebrated the 4000 match in a row with an academy player in the club. It was a match against Everton and the club was managed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

After That match, Solskajer Said “Giving young players a chance is a tradition that we are very proud of. It’s part of our DNA and you learn that quickly when you join the club”

Solskjaer, was a great player at the club, he was the manager but he also managed the Academy in between. Also manager such as Wilf McGuiness who was managing the academy before he became the manager of the club.