If they have to cite Cleverley and Welbeck as his best achievements then maybe it's time for a change
Perhaps if we get Mourinho we can spend £500million to be in a relegation scrap? Are you still a Gooner by the way?
The Academy shouldn't just be a production line to produce players to be sold on to other clubs. I know that's the Chelsea model but it's flawed. At the very least it should be bringing through squad players, which, ironically, is something we're now seeing, just at the time when this fella has become disillusioned and decided to move on.
We can make money just opening the curtains each morning at OT, it's points we need the players to make.
A pretty damning article on this; ww.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3410732/Manchester-United-s-academy-reduced-underfunded-afterthought-no-wonder-youngsters-30-points-Manchester-City.html * cue replies along the lines of 'it's the Daily Mail so it must be made up'*
If a young player is good enough he will be promoted to the U21 or 1st team. and the U21s are top of the league
However the investment figures are pretty damning. That said I think a comparison with Chelsea is inaccurate. Chelsea use the Academy to generate revenue from transferring players to other clubs not to bring players through to the Chelsea first team. United have been focussing resources on generating revenue from sponsorship. I would say both approaches are a sad indictment on modern football. City seem to genuinely be trying to bring players through although I suspect that unless they uncover an absolutely exceptional talent the money will prove to be wasted as the first team squad will long be made up of purchased talent.
Further indication of where the bottom line lies with the Glazers. Anyone who thinks this lot are good for the club because they bring **** loads of sponsors in is a brainwashed dolt.
Of course they will. That's not really the point though is it? The point is, we won't be bringing those players through in the not too distant future.
To be fair neither will City or Chelsea. For all that they've outspent us on the academy in the past few years (actually close to a decade in Chelsea's case) they still have nothing really to show for it in terms of players breaking into the first team - Paddy McNair's made more appearances for us than all of City and Chelsea's recent youth graduates combined. That said, we do need to up our game on the academy side - our academy was state of the art back in 2002 but needs to be updated if we're not going to fall behind. Unsure of the value of paying to send academy players to private school tho - seems like an expensive way to risk our best prospects deciding they'd rather be merchant bankers than footballers...
Few problems at that level as we restructure the set up but, were still one of, if not the best acadamy in the country. Our youth team just destroyed Southampton (considered a great acadamy), Are current cup champions too and producing players at a rate no other can match. So while we have issues that need to be addressed, the acadamy chief leaving doesn't even register as part of those issues