Fletcher: This club is built around the Academy

In Manchester United’s recent embarrassing 1-1 draw at home against West Ham, former manager Ruben Amorim opted to bring on players like Lisandro Martinez and Manuel Ugarte on to the pitch over the likes of Kobbie Mainoo and Shea Lacey when we were chasing a goal.

There had been much criticism of Amorim’s reluctance to give Academy players a decent chance during his time as manager.

In this week’s draw against Burnley, Shea Lacey was given rare minutes by new interim manager Darren Fletcher and came incredibly close to scoring.

When speaking to the press ahead of Sunday’s game against Brighton in the FA Cup, Fletcher has spoken about the importance of the Academy.

I just think, historically, this club’s built around the Academy. We’ve got an amazing Academy. Our record speaks for itself. I’m not going to sit here and say anything other than that. We’ve got an amazing record. I think it’s hard to beat in terms of the history of clubs around the world. I think we’ve got some amazing players, some amazing talents. I think what I see is a lot of hard-working, humble young players, who aren’t perfect, because they’re young and they’re learning and they’ve got a lot to do. I think we ask and expect too much of young people sometimes – in society and in general. And that’s not a criticism of anybody, that’s just my beliefs. I think we have to let them learn, educate them, help them, understand they’re going to make mistakes, and they’re going to do things that’ll frustrate you. But through time with good guidance of coaches, family members, players in the first-team squad, all of us play a part. That’s our role, that’s our jobs, of developing them to be Manchester United players and Manchester United people. So, all I can say is my workings with those players as individuals, and, in general throughout the Academy, I deal with hard-working, honest, coachable, super-talented kids, and we’ve got a lot of talent in our Academy, and hopefully they can showcase themselves like Shea did when he came on against Burnley and was so close to scoring a fantastic goal.

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