Scholes: I'm worried that City are ahead at youth level

[baildon blue]

The c**t never stops talking about us.

He is absolutely shitting himself.

Music to my ears .

 

[Shirley]

Not correct Scholes, if I remember correctly 30 years ago the rags didn't have the pick of every lad in Manchester. It was City who had the cream of the talent leading up to us winning the youth cup in 1986 beating the rags easily over 2 legs.
It was baconface who changed it around for them and he is on record by saying he was shocked at the state of the rag academy and it was the first thing he set out to improve. 
It was around this time I reckon City became complacent and we lost the then young family man.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Not correct Scholes, if I remember correctly 30 years ago the rags didn't have the pick of every lad in Manchester. It was City who had the cream of the talent leading up to us winning the youth cup in 1986 beating the rags easily over 2 legs.
It was baconface who changed it around for them and he is on record by saying he was shocked at the state of the rag academy and it was the first thing he set out to improve. 
It was around this time I reckon City became complacent and we lost the then young family man.

Dead right.

We lost interest in it, perhaps down to Kendall/Reid, & Ferguson went after getting all the best young players using people like Brian Kidd.

They had that one era where they had Scholes, Nevilles, Butt etc plus Giggs who they stole from City & Beckham who they stole from West Ham. But that was before the academy system was brought in.

Since then, Utd, like City, have produced barely any players of real quality, just bullshit merchancts. Arguably City have brought through the best, with Sturridge, Micah & SWP, but we also pinched them from elsewhere.

The academy system has been a disaster so far, one thing Ferguson is correct about. I think City, & probably Chelsea, are about to change that.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

He's worried that we're ahead? He shouldn't be worried, he should be shitting himself.

 

[Hartford]

He's becoming more bitter by the week

 

[Carver]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/paul-scholes-column-as-a-manchester-united-man-im-worried-that-manchester-city-have-moved-ahead-of-the-game-at-youth-level-9919194.html

When I was a kid, it was the case among the lads I played football with that if Manchester United wanted to sign you then joining Manchester City was not even a consideration. United did not have to persuade or offer inducements. We would have walked there ourselves.
Thirty years on, and the picture in Manchester is very different and, as a United fan, it worries me. Trying to look at it from a neutral perspective I have to say that what City have achieved is impressive and their impact on the youth scene in Manchester began long before the opening of their City Football Academy this week, an event which seems to have generated more publicity in some quarters than the arrival of Christmas itself.

It has been no secret among people I know in football that City have taken great strides in their youth academy programmes, to the extent that there are even United players past and present who have, or at least once had, sons at City’s academy. That will be difficult for a lot of United fans to get their heads around. I guess when it comes to a parent wanting the right thing for their child, it takes precedence over even the deepest loyalties.

Producing young footballers is a very difficult process. I was part of a group of players who managed to battle our way right through the youth teams and reserves at a club we loved to be very successful in the first team. We know that it does not happen often. Clearly, City feel that if they can produce just a handful of first-team players from their new £200m academy it will have been worth the investment, and surely that is right.

United have won 10 FA Youth Cups, more than any club in the land and eight more than City. Yet the buzz in Manchester is that it is City now who have the better academy programme. That it is City who are getting the better players in the local area. How that has happened, I cannot say definitively but it will come down to more than one factor. Clearly, the offer of a professional contract when a boy turns 17, and the size of that contract can never be ignored.

It is also about the coaching too. I am more in favour of creating footballers who know how to do the jobs they need to do in a game. At City the emphasis has, I am told, been more about teaching kids to play in certain systems. The results of all the age-group teams are not published by the clubs, not below the Under-18s anyway, but I have heard that when the clubs play each other across the age groups, it is City who come out on top.

Some people say that winning is not that important in youth development. I disagree. You learn about being a footballer by playing matches and you learn about winning by winning those games. Playing at United, in the Under-16s and Under-18s, we were expected to win every week. My contemporaries, people like Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs, were born and bred winners, and that was the way United liked it. Winning games prepared us for the first team, where we were expected to win every time we stepped on the pitch.

It is a nice idea to say to kids “it doesn’t matter about the result”, but when you become a professional you quickly realise that is all that matters. The sooner you get the winning mentality, the better.

United last won the FA Youth Cup, an Under-18s competition, in 2011 and they were beaten by Chelsea, another very strong academy, in the semi-final the following year. City last won it in 2008 and in the last three years have been knocked out in the fifth round, twice by Fulham. What might concern United fans is that in the last two years their team has been eliminated by Burnley and, last season, Huddersfield Town.

The FA Youth Cup is just one way of taking the temperature of a club’s academy. United have a fantastic history in producing players and there will always be boys who will want to come to the club. The issue is whether they are good enough for the first team. Some of the current lads who have been promoted, such as Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett, have benefited from an injury crisis but will they be there in the long term? James Wilson clearly has a chance of making the grade.

The bigger picture is how City have upped the stakes with their new academy and training complex. United’s Carrington base is a great training ground and academy, but City have just taken theirs to another level. These things matter now. It is a long way from the days when I used to get three buses from my home in north Manchester to the old Cliff training ground in Salford.

It is a subject that I make no excuse for returning to. In those days you were expected to get yourself to training on time. There were no minibuses to ferry you around. None of the mollycoddling. It was sink or swim and I loved it, especially being with my mates all day. It taught me about being a good footballer but also about taking responsibility for myself. I learnt to be streetwise.

But things change and you can take nothing for granted. In the modern era, United, with their history of being the greatest talent producer, have to watch that they do not become second choice in their own city.

Some years ago approx late 1980`s I was talking to Glyn Pardoe and we started talking about youth players.He told me a story whereby this talented youngster (I think from Wythenshawe but ISC) who had been with us for about 3 years.
On his 16th birthday they went around to his house to sign this young lad on.Imagine their surprise when they parked the car and low and behold a brand new black Ford Escort XL was sitting on the youngsters front garden.
Glyn said that the family were certainly poor and there is no way they would have been way they could have affored to pay any insurance,let alone buy a car.
The family decided,including the young lad,that he wouldn`t be signing a full contract with the Blues.A few days passed and low and behold he had signed for the Rags.Now guess who bought him this wonderful Birthday Present ?
As Glyn said at the time "there is no way that we could compete with United and nor would we do,based on their handling of this affair".
Karma is a wonderful thing Mr.Scholes and what goes around comes around.Tough shite !

Ah, but there is a flaw in this story. A car for a 16 year old? Maybe his dad borrowed it for a year until he could get a licence?

 

[Corky]

I seem to remember a club got fined for poaching players around 25 years ago, seen it on the North West news.

 

[Bluewonder]

It isn't only youth level at which we're ahead, Scholesy!

Looks like it's finally dawning on the rag masses. I'm sure the tears will however be tempered by the next broadcast of the Ministry of Truth!

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

The **** never stops talking about us.

He is absolutely shitting himself.

Well said, SR.

 

[jared]

Louis van Gaal dismisses talk of Man City facility drawing youth talent

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers and Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal prepare both of their squads in a derby enounter at Old Trafford.
Manchester City are not guaranteed to get the pick of the best young players in the region despite spending 200 million pounds on a new training complex, warned Louis van Gaal after City unveiled their state-of-the-art training complex in Manchester this week.

The base, which is connected to the Etihad Stadium by bridge, includes a 7,000-seat stadium, 16 pitches and a luxury hotel, as well as cutting-edge technology which will aid opposition analysis and rehabilitation from injury.

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