Inside United magazine: Made in Manchester edition
The January 2020 issue of Inside United magazine celebrates the club’s proud pathway from youth football to the first team, with nine homegrown heroes all starring on a unique front cover.
Today’s youth graduates follow an extraordinary bloodline that includes Duncan Edwards, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Mark Hughes and Ryan Giggs, to name just a few. The lineage to have graced the senior team having first been developed within is one steeped in glory and club history.
And it is a reason to be immensely proud.
Sunday's match against Everton will be the 4,000th consecutive fixture in which United have named at least one youth graduate in the first team or matchday squad, dating back to October 1937.
When we take on Everton this Sunday it will be the 4,000th senior match in succession in which at least one youth graduate is represented in the first team or matchday squad. That’s an extraordinary unbroken chain spanning over nine decades and stretching back to before the Second World War.
In recognition of this landmark, and given the recent on-pitch feats and first of our current class of Academy graduates, Inside United magazine gives over a big section of the January edition to the story of Manchester United’s umbilical relationship with youth football.
The history, the players, the deeds and the dates – it’s all there.
Interspersed, too, with Q&As from a selection of current players telling their development stories, led by Rashford, whose exclusive interview provides a fascinating insight into his story so far.
Quizzed on what makes the Academy so special and why other clubs don’t have a record like ours, Marcus pays tribute to the dedicated coaches whose work shows no signs of slowing down.
“The coaches are very good and they’re almost doing, maybe, 12 years of developing an individual,” Marcus tells Inside United. “And in those 12 years they can mould you into what they know a Man United player is. If you just fall short of being a Man United player, there’s a lot of examples of playing in the Premier League, or in the Championship, or abroad.
“When you’re a kid you dream of playing professional football. That’s the main aim for a lot of people, preferably at United – if not somewhere else, but preferably at United. That’s why the coaching staff are very important. And I just can’t see it ever slowing down, us breeding players.”
Asked to describe the Academy in three words, Rashford concludes: “I think ‘growth’, ‘discipline’ and ‘future’. Those are the three words that spring to mind when I think of Man United’s Academy.
“They’re always growing us, there’s always more and more players and they’re becoming better and better. That’s why growth was in there.
“The other two are just what I’ve known from being in the Academy and they’re the two things – being disciplined and focusing on your future – other than your talent that will get you into the first team.”
This latest edition also features compelling interviews with Andreas, Chong and Lingard, plus two clubs legends - Bryan Robson and Andy Cole - who provide their insights into the conveyor belt of youth talent that broke into the first team during the periods they were at Old Trafford.
The January 2020 edition of Inside United magazine is out now and is available to buy at Old Trafford, in stores and also online.