Young Guns – The Future of Manchester United




::Sigh::

Did you hear that noise? It was the sound of the transfer window closing. Did you hear that other noise? Probably not. It was the sound of me cracking a beer and making a toast. This summer seemed to be especially long for me as a United fan, particularly because we did most of our signings early in the window. Hell, the season was barely out when we signed Phil Jones. But, doing our business early made for an excruciatingly long and tedious summer. Throw in Sneijdergate 2011 and I had had enough by the start of the US Tour.

Now, that’s not to say that I wasn’t hopeful we might sign another player after we brought in the other three signings. Going all the way back to last season, fans had been clamoring for a MF signing. People continued to take the piss out of Carrick even though he had a better season than his previous. Fletcher had been out for months with some weird virus. We were relatively unsure about the likelihood of moving our youngsters up. Smalling played well after his signing from Fulham, so many were hopeful. Jonny Evans had been shaky. Cleverley did well on loan at Wigan, but we weren’t exactly sure if he was ready. Welbeck’s loan at Sunderland was good for him, but many weren’t sure he could supplement a strong attacking force with Rooney, Hernandez, and Berbatov. Anderson had a lackluster season overall, with many throwing out a last season ultimatum to the Brazilian. We had signed Phil Jones, but he hadn’t played for us yet. Young is a proven player in the EPL, but we hadn’t been able to see that translate to United. And the youngster most of us were worried about was David de Gea. In the MF, we didn’t have a direct Scholes replacement, but in goal we had a direct VDS replacement. Fans were a bit nervous, which is why everyone wanted that MF summer signing.

Throughout the tumultuous transfer window, the name that was most linked with United was Wesley Sneijder. The majority of fans immediately wanted the Dutchman. I, however, was a bit hesitant. The man is a great player, don’t get me wrong. But, with his injuries and meteoric rise in price over the span of one year, I wasn’t sold. Scholes was a one-off player. We’ll never be able to replace him and shouldn’t try to find a Scholesy-type player. Keep in mind that Scholes didn’t play a vital role for us over the last two seasons, especially last season, our 19th title season. Sure, he had flashes of brilliance, but overall, we did without him. Finding someone in a rush to replace Scholes would be a bad move and I don’t think that Sneijder was the right player for that. This also brought up the discussion about what type of MF we truly needed – a creative one or a defensive one.

Of the available targets this summer, I wanted one of the following: Modric, Nasri, De Rossi, or Diarra. Now that Nasri is at City, I’ll never want him at United, let’s just get that clear. He ultimately chose his path to City and I’ll never forget it. The other three, I feel, would’ve been great signings for us. But, I can not and will not harp on the what could’ve been. For the love of God, we just crushed Arsenal 8-2. We got our first away win on the first game of the season.  Add these BPL games to an impressive pre-season where all of our youngsters stepped up, and I can’t wonder what would’ve or should’ve happened.

SAF showed his confidence in our youngsters by fielding the 2nd youngest team EVER in a league match. He rewarded those players by leaving the starting 11 in place for the Arsenal match. As we all know, SAF mixed it up, especially in the MF, a lot last season, but the confidence he has in these players is apparent. Our team is really strong and I went into this season with an optimism I don’t normally have. That was without a big signing in the MF. Now, don’t get me wrong – there are going to be tests on this young team, some of which they aren’t going to pass. But, I will not be one of the people that calls for someone’s head when that happens. I have faith that we have a strong enough squad to get the job done. I hope other fans feel the same way. Cause in the end, this young team is the future of our club. Let’s get behind them from the get-go.

Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasTheDevil



About Steve Ferguson 886 Articles
Steve Ferguson had taken over & re-branded The Faithful MUFC website back in the summer of 2014 and is now the owner and editor of the site. Steve, from Ashton-Under-Lyne in Greater Manchester, is a 35-year-old life long Manchester United fan, travelling over the globe to see the Reds play. Steve has been lucky enough to be at both the 1999 and 2008 Champions League finals, seeing Manchester United lift the biggest trophy in the World, none more exciting than that faithful night in Barcelona in 99. The website is a blog, but also hopes to deliver the latest Manchester United news from around the internet too, linked up with our growing twitter account which is @TheFaithfulMUFC, give it a follow as we will follow you back as soon as we can.

7 Comments

  1. Thanks for the read, Ryan. I really hope fans can understand that there will be trials and tribulations with a young squad. We’ve looked great in so far, but we all have to be realistic.

  2. Couldnt agree with you more united has always been about bringing young players through and unless u give them a chance then it could just end up being wasted talent the fans neeed to get behind the young players in tough times not criticize them de gea has looked shaky but this doesnt bother me I wathced him a hell of alot over last season he looks incredible he just neeeds to settle and adjust hes is great with his distribution and has made some brilliant saves the fans that call for his head should be shot he neeeeds to be given the chance all young players will make mistakes its all about how they deal with them and overcome them and this young side seems to have alot of character the thing that excited me most is how alot of fergies new fledglings are english and with the winning mentality they have and the fact in a few years we could see up to 7 or 8 of them in the starting line up maybe englands luck is about to change

  3. well yeah let’s get carried away like fucking idiots. we not played any strong team so far so it way too early do conclusions, but the problem is jason, that we posting profits of 110 million and yet unaible to afford world best players because of debt burdened by glazers. doesn’t this bother you at all? me as a united fan its insults,

  4. Great piece with some much needed perspective. We are doing things the Busby way yet again. Its the best way and the only way united know.

  5. First off, no one is getting carried away. You don’t see level-headed United fans claiming we’re going to win our 20th like delusional idiots. Also, we just spent 50-60 milliion pounds on players. That’s not just some drop in the bucket. We asked for the liquidity to buy players and we did. But, we are a team that builds a team, not buys a team. All of our youngsters have the potential to be world class players. We aren’t City – a team who stockpiles supposed talent in hopes of assembling a championship caliber side. We bought and supplemented where we needed to and now we have to trust that SAF can field and structure a team that will get the job done.

    Also, if you read, you’d notice that I said there would be tests that these youngsters don’t pass. There will be issues we have to deal with. No one is up in the clouds because of three games and that’s not what the article said in any way shape or form. In the end, we spent 50-60 on good quality players that will fit in with United. Of all the things to blame the Glazers for, these additions are not one of them.

  6. Jonno, thank you much for the read. Finally feels good to have a young side that we can all feel confident about. I remember the injury issues over the last 2-3 seasons always dreading when Rio or Vidic would pick up a knock. I’d love to have them in the side, but we do have some much needed depth with our youngsters.

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