Head of academy Butt heaps praise on United trio's progress
Thursday 29 November 2018 08:56, UK
Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford are “shining examples” of the success of Manchester United’s academy, says Nicky Butt.
Rashford and Lingard have netted three and two goals respectively for England this season, having been part of the Three Lions' run to the semi-finals of the summer's World Cup - a tournament Pogba won with France.
That was after a 2017/18 season in which the trio helped United finish second in the Premier League.
A recent study found the amount of Premier League playing time United gave to products of their own academy last term saw them rank second in the division on that front for a second successive year. Both Rashford and Lingard's individual minutes tallies were higher than in 2016/17.
United's head of academy Butt said of Rashford, Lingard and Pogba: "They are the shining examples of our academy.
"They are young boys who came through the ranks here. Marcus and Jesse are local boys who know the area, are United fans and I'm sure their families are as well.
They are young boys who came through the ranks here. Marcus and Jesse are local boys who know the area, are United fans and I'm sure their families are as well.
"We're really proud and privileged to have them playing for us, and playing for their country and doing so well.
"But we've also got to look for the next ones. We can't just stand still and say 'we have done well, they are going to be in the team for the next five, six, seven years', because it's never a given.
"We have to keep striving to get the next one - where's the next Jesse, the next Marcus, the next Pogba when you can bring them in from abroad? That is our challenge as a club, that's our challenge as a scouting department."
In an overall playing time of 6,858 top-flight minutes United gave to their own academy products last season there were 1,948 for Rashford and 1,928 for Lingard, increases of 88 and 481 respectively on the previous year's tallies.
Pogba - who spent four years at Juventus before rejoining United in 2016 - got 2,286 minutes, Scott McTominay 694 and Axel Tuanzebe two. While the number of homegrown players featuring for United dropped from 10 to five, the difference in overall playing time was a decrease of only 55 minutes.
Also, the study found United's academy, as in 2016-17, accounted for more minutes and players across the whole of the Premier League than that of any other club, even though there had been a decrease in the figures in both cases.
Butt feels the past year and a half has been a great advert for the academy.
He said: "The last 18 months, it has been amazing for us. We are very happy with our academy. I think we are the biggest and the best one and we don't shout about it enough.
"We do it our way, and our way has been acknowledged and recognised as the best.
"At Manchester United we have a real philosophy that we have to try to get some of our young boys in our first team for the manager to play week in, week out and become superstars of the club. That is our ultimate goal.
"We're also very aware that is very difficult in modern-day football, so we're really proud of the fact we have a really good record of getting a lot of our players playing Premier League football.
"We also understand it's massive for us for players that have come from our academy to go on to represent other clubs in the Premier League - that's really good for us."
