'United Once, United Forever' - Academy Alumni project launches

In the next edition of our monthly magazine Inside United, released in mid-December, we take a detailed look at the innovative new Academy Alumni scheme which seeks to significantly extend communication with past Academy players, offering informal education, workshops and, ultimately, creating a virtuous network of enthusiastic young men entering new stages of their careers.

Academy graduates maintaining their United association beyond their initial departures is nothing new. Coaches and other staff are in regular contact with their old players, and have been for years. One of those graduates, Joe Thompson, is now playing a key role as advisor to the Alumni project.

“I’m very, very excited,” he says.

“The coaches here taught me things way beyond the white lines of a football pitch, and that’s what I’m trying to do here.

“It’s about taking what I learnt through my career, including life skills, and being able to pass that message down and be a soundboard and, ultimately, create a network where, whoever you are or whenever you leave, you know that you’ve got a home here. It is United and it is forever.”

Thompson has worked closely with Nick Cox (Director of Academy) over the last year, offering insight into what players would really appreciate at different stages of their careers. Cox acknowledges how “brilliant” the staff have always been at keeping in touch with young players, but says this is about creating a “formal mechanism” to offer more consistent, additional support.

“It’s also about creating a network for the young players where they can share experiences, ideas and skills to the betterment of everyone,” he says.

"These boys may not have achieved what they hoped to on the football pitch but you tend to find that young boys who are committed to excellence in football are really resilient, resourceful, creative, purposeful, talented young people.”

The Alumni project — ‘United Once, United Forever’ — will officially begin in January with a ‘welcome home’ event.

“Here at Manchester United we always want to try and do things a little bit differently and try and lead the way,” Nick Cox says.

Doing things differently in this instance will mean offering care, informal education and workshops which open the players’ eyes to the different areas of the football world, areas in which they might work one day. The pilot training week included a scouting workshop from Head of Academy Recruitment Luke Federonko and a coaching workshop with Colin Little.

You can read more about the details of those workshops and the whole Alumni project in the next edition of Inside United, available to pre-order here ahead of its mid-December release.

At the very heart of the project is one desire, from everybody associated with the Academy. All those we speak to phrase it differently, but echo the same sentiment.

“Even if they don’t come back, if they’re not ready to, they need to know that people care, and people want to help them,” Little says.

Thompson wants the Alumni to know that “whoever you are or whenever you leave, you’ve got a home here and it is United and it is forever.”

And Nick Cox says the same: “We want to make sure that this place is always a home and they know they’re always a member of the United family.”