For a club of Manchester United’s stature and expectations, not every talented young player can make the grade.
Only the exceptional succeed in nailing down a regular spot and establishing themselves as first-team stars across multiple seasons. See those ‘Fergie Fledgings’ David Beckham, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. See ‘Ten Hag’s Tots’, the FA Cup-winning heroes Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho.
For every Mainoo, for every Scholes, however, there are countless others who fall just short.
But, as far as academy director Nick Cox is concerned, Manchester United have a duty not only to provide their manager with potential first-team players but to also set others up for a fine career in the professional game even if that means away from Old Trafford.
See James Garner, Andreas Pereira, Anthony Elanga and Teden Mengi. All of whom featured week-in, week-out during the 2023/24 campaign at other Premier League clubs.
Manchester United’s academy as valuable as ever
“Our Academy graduates delivered more playing time across the whole of the Premier League than any other Academy,” a proud Cox tells the Man United website. “Contributing to this statistic were three players who left us last summer.
“Teden Mengi made 30 appearances for Luton Town, Anthony Elanga played 36 times for Nottingham Forest and Dean Henderson had 18 games for Crystal Palace.
“Like Teden and Anthony, several players left us at the start of the season to pursue a career away from United. We are proud of them all.”
Cox is particularly pleased with the progress of Mengi.
If it wasn’t for a series of long-term fitness issues, the Manchester-born defender may have found himself playing in the role Willy Kambwala played under Erik ten Hag last term, providing youthful support for an injury-hit backline and stepping up when required.
Mengi put those injury problems behind him after joining Luton Town last summer. A star performer for a Hatters side who earned plenty of admirers even if they failed to stave off relegation.
“Teden is an example of what can be achieved by our players, no matter what setbacks they face,” adds Cox, Mengi getting his career back on track and proving himself capable of thriving at the top-level.
“Last summer, knowing he had no future with our first-team, he was exceptional in the way he committed to pre-season with our Under 21s to prepare himself for the next phase of his career.
“He has had a great season with Luton.”
Mason Greenwood could be the next to leave
Cox is pleased to see a number of other Carrington graduates step away from the Premier League and reap the benefits. Matej Kovar, for instance, won both the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal under Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen.
Fortunately, Man United had the good sense to include a buy-back clause in the contract of a man who is now part of the Czech Republic squad for this summer’s European Championships.
“Some of the standout stories are Matej Kovar playing in the Europa League final for Bayer Leverkusen,” Cox adds. “Dishon Bernard having a huge role in saving Sheffield Wednesday from relegation, Charlie Savage making his senior debut for Wales, Noam Emeran being promoted with Groningen and Zidane Iqbal recovering from an injury to play 12 times for Utrecht.
“Incidentally, the Academy generated £38m in revenue from player sales this season.”
Carrington could prove to be another valuable source of income again in 2024. Mason Greenwood, linked with a potentail £25 million move to Juventus or Valencia, could free up the funds required for United to step up their pursuit of Dean Henderson’s Crystal Palace team-mate Michael Olise.