Snak

Apropos venstre back, så er der lidt snak om Ghoulam fra Napoli igen. Det skulle være en eller anden gentlemansaftale om, at Mendes bringer Grimaldo til Napoli, så vi kan købe Ghoulam fri af dem.

Ret konkret rygte, men ved ikke hvor troværdig mediet er. Men han er da en glimrende back, som jeg bestemt ikke ville have noget imod at få ind.

Der var i øvrigt en fantastisk artikel om akademiet i The Times inden derbyet i sidste uge. Jeg glemte helt, at få det delt, men det er absolut værd at læse, hvis man har interesse i hvad klubben foretager sig på ungdomsniveau.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-dream-factory-behind-the-scenes-at-manchester-uniteds-academy-ncmhdlqrx

Det er en lang sag, så det er med fare for at smadre lay-outet her i tråden, at jeg indsætter det, men artiklen er gemt bag en pay-wall.

Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard still dart back across to the Manchester United academy at Carrington and practise shooting at the targets on the wall where they once learnt their game. Academy prospects chasing the same dream notice such enduring commitment to self-improvement.

Scott McTominay still leaves his car round the front at Carrington, rather than in the first-team car park at the back. Academy hopefuls note this too. They also see Paul Pogba strolling over to greet his old coaches. They understand the dedication and humility required to make it at Manchester United.

The focus will be on these four today, playing some part in the Manchester derby, but the head of the academy, Nicky Butt, and head of youth development, John Murtagh, are concentrating on the next generation, extending a remarkable record. “October 1937,” says Murtagh proudly of the last time that United did not have a home-grown player in their match-day squad.

Teenage talent continues to emerge, such as Angel Gomes, who made his debut in the FA Cup against Yeovil Town, Aliou Traore, brought in from Paris Saint-Germain, Jim Garner, a commanding Birkenhead-born midfield player who looks a natural leader, and a potential gem in Mason Greenwood, only 16 but happily converting penalties with either foot. On a glorious Thursday morning at Carrington, Garner can be found striking the ball smoothly and unerringly and, to the approving gaze of Butt, tackling with timing and a streak of steel.

Butt wandered over to have a chat with Kieran McKenna, the highly regarded under-18s coach, pausing to curl a loose ball into the net from an implausible angle. The kids notice. Garner tries a similar shot when the session breaks.

Returning to their changing rooms, Garner and company walk along a corridor adorned with the image of Butt and all the glittering graduates from Best to Beckham, Charlton to Giggs and Rashford. “They obviously know Marcus and Jesse and, with the dinosaurs like myself and the other lads, they know about the history,” Butt says.

By chance, United’s under-19s happened to be playing in Belgrade on the 60th anniversary of the Munich air disaster. “We went to the hotel where they had the last meal,” Butt continues. “You’re thinking, ‘How will this work out, they’re only young kids, they won’t know anything about it.’ But it was heartwarming, touching. They had the menu [from 58] in the hotel. They got the video out.
“Even the 15 and 16-year-olds went to the memorial and some of the lads visited the graves and laid wreaths. They have to know the history of the club. It’s important. I remember going to Old Trafford at least once a week for work experience. We’d walk past Sir Matt’s [Busby] office when he was alive. We knew straightaway who that was. I was made to know him by Sir Alex.”

From babes to fledgelings, the history of Manchester United is greatly shaped by youth development. “The academy is massively thriving,” Butt says. “If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be in the job.”

Which is why Butt can absorb the frustration of United’s under-23s enduring a wretched season. “The three biggest developers in football are Southampton, Tottenham and United. Southampton aren’t in the league. Tottenham are near the bottom and we’re near the bottom. That speaks for itself.” Butt is dismissive of the concept of under-23s football. “If players are not in or around the first team by 20, 21, they won’t make it here,” he says.

Pogba is a case in point; not quite good enough for the first team under Ferguson, he was far too good for the reserves. “When he was here it was [Paul] Scholes, [Michael] Carrick and [Darren] Fletcher [in midfield]. They weren’t exactly average players.
“He went for whatever the money was — it doesn’t really matter — and became probably the best midfielder in the world at the time at Juve. If he’d stayed here and stagnated [in the reserves], he might never have been a name on the wall here. We were lucky enough to get him back. He’s a feather in our cap.”

The academy’s cap. “Our foundations stay solid whether it is David Moyes, Louis van Gaal or José Mourinho as manager,” Butt continues. “The board, the owners and [executive vice-chairman] Ed Woodward have told us that ‘the academy is ring-fenced, you do it how you wish’.”

Butt remains very aware of Manchester City’s investment in youth, their young stars, such as Phil Foden, and contribution to England age-groups, but how many will feature this evening? “I don’t know what City’s drive is, I don’t really care,” Butt replies. “I know they have an unbelievable facility, I know what they’ve done over the last ten years and no one can take that away from them, they’ve been fantastic.

“But for us, it’s about getting players into the first team and the proof will be in the pudding when we walk out in the derby, with possibly three starting. The demand from the owners and the board is, ‘You’ve got to get players in the first team.’ We’re doing that.”
He loves Mourinho’s use of academy alumni. “The funds we’ve got are the biggest in the world and we can go and get anyone we want. We are the highest developer of players and doing it at the club with the highest transfer budget, I’d guess. He came to me and said, ‘I’m the manager of the first team. You’re the manager of the academy. I’m selfish. I want to get them into winning ways. We will speak about players coming up.’ I can’t ask for any more than that. I look at what he’s done with Scott. And others. The manager rang me this morning to send a player over to him.

“José Mourinho has this tag that he doesn’t give kids a chance but, if those kids are good enough, he’s going to because it’s beneficial to him. He talks to us about the academy. Sometimes he can be moody but that’s his busy side.

“He sat down with the under-14 kids for half an hour before they went over to Portugal and asked them about their beliefs. He’s the manager of the biggest club in the world. For me, he’s as good as you could ask for.

“He’s not Sir Alex. Sir Alex had a vision. He’d know my name when I was 13. He had a 10 to 15-year plan with the board and Mr [Martin] Edwards. This manager probably doesn’t. He has to get into the top four, get United back to winning ways and, added to that, he has the parrot in his ear saying, ‘You’ve got to pick academy players, everyone plays academy players here.’

“That’s great for us but for him it must be a nightmare. It is a pat on the back for the academy staff that people like Scott and Marcus are going up there and we’re not seeing them again.

“It’s up to us to give him good players. Scott, when he first went up there, he [Mourinho] might have been a bit unsure about him. We all were, let’s be honest.” McTominay’s strength of personality, work rate and height [a Mourinho love] won the manager over. “Scott’s not fazed, he’s United through and through.

“I can moan about the under-23s being bottom of the table but ultimately, what is best, bottom of the table with the under-23s and having four players involved in the derby or the other way round? I know which one I’d take and which one the club would take. We develop first-team players better than anybody. We also develop players for others’ first teams better than anybody.

“There’s 64 in the top two tiers. Many didn’t quite make it here, like Danny Drinkwater and Michael Keane, and that’s no shame because to make it here is few and far between, but we give them tools to make a career elsewhere and be good human beings. We teach them to become a good human being, to go and speak to the canteen lady, Sarah. Take your plate back, so you can go into any walk of life and be a successful person.”

On the wall of the academy is a small photo of Lionel Messi after Argentina played Croatia at Upton Park in 2014. Messi cleans his own boots. The message is as clean and clear as Messi’s boots; greats don’t lose their grounding.

Murtagh takes up the narrative. “We have the footballing values here of attacking, free-flowing, exciting football and, as people, you want humility, an honest, hardworking person, someone who’s respectful,” he says.

“We’re custodians of the jersey and we want them to be aware what the responsibilities of being a Manchester United player are. On the Hong Kong trip with a group of 15 and 16-year-olds, they coached kids who live in the big high-rise areas. All those experiences are part of helping them grow. We get emails praising the kids.

“I was talking to a parent who said even if his lad didn’t make it, he’d been to eight countries, which was more than he had. We had six teams out of the country last week: two in Spain, one in LA, one in Italy, one in Dallas and one in Scotland. We want to make sure if they’re lucky enough to go with José it’s not a shock.”

Butt continues: “We try not to put too much pressure on them. A 13-year-old boy going to his school, that’s pressure straightaway because people look at him and say, ‘That’s the boy who plays for Manchester United, that’s the boy who’s going to be a footballer, that’s the boy who’ll be a multimillionaire.’ ”

To help them deal with pressure, Chris McCready, formerly of Tranmere Rovers, and the sports psychologist Dan Ransom are upstairs in a class-room inviting the under-13s and 14s to write down “three moments when they felt under pressure” and then discuss them, tackling the issues.

After watching footage of the 1999 and 2008 Champions League finals and the 2016 FA Cup final, they take it in turns to role-play individuals such as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Carrick and Lingard in press conferences. The boy playing Carrick deals tactfully with a question of whether he has any sympathy for his England team-mate, John Terry, for slipping in Moscow. The diplomat is 13.

Some youngsters hail from deprived backgrounds, and recently one mother quietly gathered up sandwiches from the parents’ area to take home for the hungry siblings of her talented son. Offspring get caught between warring parents. Naive youngsters post risky content on Instagram. “You could call it a bit of social work as well,” Butt says of his role. “We talk to them about what it takes to become a Manchester United player. We tell them they have to sacrifice things, they have to work hard. One player tossed training [with the first team] off a little bit. I went mad at him. I said, ‘That might be the last time you get in front of this manager [Mourinho].’

“I said, ‘That training session was more important than any game you’ll play this season, under-23, under-19, under-18. To get in front of the manager and show how good you are is invaluable.’ The next time he was in front of the manager, the manager was raving about him.”

Butt worries about elements of the academy system. “Everyone wants to be a No 10 now, a Messi. That’s good because they all want to play the right football but people can’t forget how good Roy Keane and Steven Gerrard were; these box-to-box players that aren’t the modern academy [product now]. Academies are developing too many similar players.”

It is one reason why United take their youngsters out of the English games programme and develop them overseas. “I was speaking to Kieran about the Dallas Cup,” Murtagh recalls. “He said, ‘Where else can I recreate a situation where one minute they are playing in front of 20,000 in the Dallas Bowl, and the next round of games was in a park area where the pitches were crap, the referee appalling and the Mexican team were scratching you, poking you in the eye, and falling on the floor?’

“This is one of the things that is against us in the academy system. Is it too pure? Every now and then, playing on a bad pitch is not a bad thing. They may get drawn in the third round of the FA Cup somewhere and it’s a little bit bobbly. They’ll remember.”

United leave nothing to chance with their education. “We instil belief in them,” Butt concludes. “You have to be able to express yourself on the big stage. If you can’t, you won’t be a Manchester United player

Endnu engang skal du have stor ros for at dele guld som det her, for jeg var helt sikkert aldrig selv faldet over det. Tak, LaPioche.

Som du skriver så er det netop en helt fantastisk artikel, og der er så mange passager, hvor jeg tænker at det er den helt rigtige måde at gøre det på, og hvor man bliver rigtig glad for at være fan af netop den her klub. For den er nemlig meget mere end blot førsteholdet.

Nicky Butt virker som en helt utrolig sympatisk fyr, og når man læser igennem det her, så kan man ikke undgå at bemærke hvor passioneret han lyder omkring det.

Derudover virker det også ret tydeligt at akademiet rent faktisk har enorm høj prioritet, og selvom det oftest også bliver nævnt fra Woody, så kan man jo nogle gange stille sig tvivlende overfor det, når man ved hvad hans primære opgave er nu hvor han er ansat af de pengeliderlige Glazers.

Der var en del passager jeg bed mærke i, og et par af dem jeg godt kunne lide var:

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Which is why Butt can absorb the frustration of United’s under-23s enduring a wretched season. “The three biggest developers in football are Southampton, Tottenham and United. Southampton aren’t in the league. Tottenham are near the bottom and we’re near the bottom. That speaks for itself.” Butt is dismissive of the concept of under-23s football. “If players are not in or around the first team by 20, 21, they won’t make it here,” he says.

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“I can moan about the under-23s being bottom of the table but ultimately, what is best, bottom of the table with the under-23s and having four players involved in the derby or the other way round? I know which one I’d take and which one the club would take. We develop first-team players better than anybody. We also develop players for others’ first teams better than anybody.


Det er jo helt rigtigt. For selvom vores akademi i visse sammenhæng har været outdated i løbet af det sidste årti, og har haft svært ved at følge med City og Chelsea, så er det jo alt sammen ligegyldigt, hvis resultaterne på u-holdene ikke resulterer i førsteholdsspillere.

Derudover finder jeg det også utrolig opløftende hvordan han omtaler Mourinho, og hvilke forhold han skal forholde sig til, kontra den tid hvor Ferguson var her. Der er nemlig en væsentlig forskel.

Alt i alt en utrolig god artikel og indsigt i hvordan tankerne om akademiet er.

Jeg er så ikke helt sikker på, at der er den modstrid mellem at ligge højt i U23-tabellen og producere talenter til førsteholdet, som Butt fremstiller det som. Generationen med Tuanzebe i spidsen vandt altså ligaen 2 år i træk (de år Van Gaal var manager), og det var vel ikke nødvendigvis fordi truppen bestod af spillere på 22 og 23, der ikke længere kunne slå igennem i United. Jeg synes ikke det er specielt positivt at U23-holdet med stor sandsynlighed rykker ned i år, for det betyder vel alt andet lige at spillere som Gomes, Chong og Gribben, der i år er rykket op, kommer til at spille på et lavere niveau til daglig.

Til gengæld er det et problem for engelsk talentudvikling, at alderstrinnene går fra U18 til U23. Der er altså et stort spring fra nyoprykket fra U18 til sidste års U23.

Men ellers synes jeg også han har nogle virkeligt interessante pointer og generelt lyder passioneret omkring ungdomsarbejdet. Og så virker det bare generelt som en god idé at have en del af Class of 92 til at stå for indpiske den samme kultur i de næste academy graduates

Jeg synes ikke det er specielt positivt at U23-holdet med stor sandsynlighed rykker ned i år, for det betyder vel alt andet lige at spillere som Gomes, Chong og Gribben, der i år er rykket op, kommer til at spille på et lavere niveau til daglig.

Til gengæld er det et problem for engelsk talentudvikling, at alderstrinnene går fra U18 til U23. Der er altså et stort spring fra nyoprykket fra U18 til sidste års U23.

Det har du da ret i, men omvendt opfatter jeg det også lidt sådan at, hvis en spiller ender med at spille et par år på U23, så er det fordi han ikke har slået til, og heller ikke vil komme til det. Det er jo meget naturligt at springet for de rigtig gode spillere kommer direkte fra U18, eller efter at de har haft en meget kortvarig periode på U23, og derfor giver det jo meget god mening at U23 vil have sværere ved at klare sig godt.

Det er selvfølgelig klart at han gerne vil tale Uniteds akademi op, og derfor argumenterer som han gør, men omvendt så er det jo svært ikke at give ham ret, når det er tydeligt hvilke hold der får flest gode talenter igennem. At City og Chelsea i mange år har klaret sig godt på U niveau, er fuldstændig ligegyldigt når ingen af spillerne kommer igennem til førsteholdet.

Joh de allerbedste har måske ikke lange ophold på det niveau, men for hver Rashford, der nærmest sprang U23 over, er der jo et hav af spillere som McTominay og Tuanzebe, der tager et par sæsoner som U23´ere. I løbet af i år er Gomes og Chong som nævnt blevet rykket op fra U18 til U23, og jeg har svært ved at forestille mig, at de ikke også spiller der næste år.

Men ja, ellers er jeg helt enig. Jeg diskuterede det inde Chelsea-tråden sidste sommer i en ophedet debat. Jeg mener helt klart også, at et akademi er sat i verden for at producere professionelle fodboldspillere. Trofæer på ungdomsniveau er naturligvis velkomment og jeg tror på, at det er med til at skabe vindere, men det er ikke det primære mål.

Når det så er sagt, så skal vi huske på, at de gange vi har vundet FA Youth Cup de sidste mange år, har været de årgange, der har skabt de største spillere. Først og fremmest Class of 92, men også årgangen med Michael Keane, Drinkwater, Lingard, Pogba m.fl.

Jeg tror, jeg sagde det for et par uger siden, men at sælge Martial ville være langt, langt værre. Hverken Salah eller De Bruyne lignede world beaters i Chelsea.

Salah viste ikke det store - men de stjal ham jo for næsen af Liverpool, som havde jagtet ham hele sommeren.
De Bruyne så jeg ikke selv det store i, men alle snakkede ham voldsomt op, og at det var et af de helt store talenter, som Mourinho var ved at lade gå.
Men vi er absolut enige i, at det vil være himmelråbende tåbeligt, at lave en mand som Martial gå. Han mangler at vise konstant højt niveau, og han har det med at falde ud af kempe, hvor faktisk spiller godt. Men man må da for fanden kunne slibe de hjørner, så han bliver den diamant vi alle kan se han har potentialet til.

Personligt tror jeg han har nogenlunde lige så stort potentiale, som Sané - han har bare ikke udviklet det ret meget over de seneste par sæsoner, hvor Sané har udviklet sig eksplosivt, og pt. vel må regnes for den bedre af de to.

Nu er det et par måneder siden, så jeg kan ikke huske om det var Geddar eller Bosse, eller måske endda dem begge i fællesskab, der kaldte den allerede da vi hentede Alexis, men hatten af for dét. Jeg havde virkelig ikke fantasi til at forestille mig, at vi blot hentede Alexis for at parkere Martial ude af position og dernæst på bænken.

Jeg troede det da heller ikke, men kunne godt lidt frygte det. Men i dét lys er Alexis vel det dummeste køb United har lavet i dette årtusinde - dummere, end Bebé og Bellion til sammen.
Hvis Alexis derimod blev brugt som angriber, som hængende angriber, ellr som højrekant, virker det som en OK handel, nu hvor Mou ikke kunne få Mkhi til at fungere (Mkhi spillede jo også på alle andre pladser, end venstre).

Hvis det endelig skal ske at Martial sælges, så er der i min optik kun en måde hvorpå det kan godtgøres, og det er ved at hente Griezmann.

Altså skifte en meget lovende 22-årig ud med en 29-årig?
Jeg ville stadig ikke mene det gav meget mening.

I øvrigt kalder jeg lige den her fra gemmerne:
Der findes ikke talent, kun hårdt arbejde !

Not true - så ville Tøffe have været verdens bedste.

Der findes talent - men måden man forvalter det på kommer an på hårdt arbejde. Der er ingen tvivl om, at både Messi og Ronaldo har arbejdet helt utroligt hårdt for at nå dertil hvor de er, og at de har en helt speciel mentalitet (det er jo også en del af det man ville kalde talent - eller prædisponeret. Uden en mentalitet om at ville være den bedste, ville man muligvis ikke knokle helt lige så hårdt, som de to - så de har med deres mentalitet været prædisponeret til at blive exceptionelt gode til det de nu valgte at beskæftige sig med, som altså blev til fodbold).

Så for at blive exceptionel til noget, kræver det at man er prædisponeret for at blive god (det er hvad vi normalt kalder talent), og 10.000+ timers målrettet træning.

Altså skifte en meget lovende 22-årig ud med en 29-årig?
Jeg ville stadig ikke mene det gav meget mening.

Skal vi ikke lige lade ham få 2 år mere før han er det. Han er altså "kun" 27.

Jeg kan ikke se hvorfor han ikke skulle kunne fortsætte på øverste niveau de næste 5-6 sæsoner, og hvis det er tilfældet, så er det bytte sgu ikke helt skidt hvis det endelig skal være