After reading through a list of where different players in England started their careers/apprenticeships, I was bewildered and amused when I took a look at the Hull squad! Who else knew that Paul McShane started his career at Man Utd, and Harper at Arsenal?
I knew about McShane but not Harper I thought this thread was going to be about how so few players came through Hull City
Just cos it's Man Utd and Arsenal doesn't mean they don't make mistakes once and a while. Most of them are rectified pretty quickly mind. For example, that Bebe player was homeless and Fergie only signed him after watching a video of him. Looks like Duffers and Browny were done by the same method when researching Ghilas.
It's regularly mentioned that Macca was at Man U - keep up! But it's indicitive of what they do. Man U especially have literally shedloads of youth teams and sign up practically anyone showing great promise at 10. It's a given that a lot of them wont progress as they hope and they end up looking relatively useless (I dont mean Mcshane here by the way).