da pinup bet： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
da supremo： A Thursday night game, away in Kazakhstan against FC Astana, and kicking off at mid-afternoon UK time. Not exactly the most memorable of occasions. But for Manchester United, their Europa League clash could potentially have been the dawning of a new era.
The club have prided themselves at being one of European football’s best at giving opportunities to their young talents – after all, they have had a member of their academy in every match-day squad since October 30, 1937. But against Astana, things felt slightly more different.
The pre-match talk was dominated by the news Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had taken an incredibly youthful-looking squad with him for the game. And logically speaking, who could blame him? The Red Devils had coasted through the Europa League group stages without even conceding a goal, with the Premier League being the one source of frustration. They are already nine points off the top four, and resting their key players for the clash against Aston Villa made complete sense.
But even if that were the primary motivation, it doesn’t take away from the sense of hope that has now been built up by their remarkable achievement on Thursday. As confirmed by Opta, their starting line-up’s average age of 22 years and 26 days is the youngest they had ever named for a match in major European competition. It would have been ever younger had Solskjaer not opted for the 36-year-old Lee Grant to go in goal.
At the end of last season, the United boss made it clear that he would try and give his club’s abundance of talented young players the chance to shine in the first-team. He said: “The players know deep down it’s ingrained in our history and tradition. They will get a chance and they know they will get the backing from the supporters. I can see most of them staying here and getting their chances next year.”
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Those opportunities have been hard to come by in the cut-throat competition of the Premier League, but the Europa League has been the perfect platform for Solskjaer to really expose United’s academy starlets to senior football. And by the end of Thursday’s game, seven players had made their first-team debuts for the side, all of whom no doubt harbouring hopes of being regulars in the senior set-up sooner rather than later.
Though the end result was a defeat, it absolutely does not take away from the sheer statement Solskjaer made. All those players coming through the academy at Carrington can look at this game and use it as a source of inspiration for what could potentially be to come for them.
And for United as a whole, it acts as another reminder that the heart and soul of this gargantuan football club is built on promising home-grown talent, and not multi-million pound signings. The era of Sir Alex Ferguson was defined by the likes of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and David Beckham et all – starring members of the Class of 92. Whilst it is improbable that all seven of those who made their bows against Astana will become cornerstones of this Red Devils team for a decade or so, they have ensured that the future remains bright for the club.
United may not have won the Premier League title since 2013, but one thing that cannot be understated is that they have something very definitive to cling on to in the future with these academy prospects.