Patience From United Fans Will Be Needed But This Summer Could Prove A Watershed Moment For The Post Ferguson Era

Patience From United Fans Will Be Needed But This Summer Could Prove A Watershed Moment For The Post Ferguson Era

Daniel James, Nathan Collins, Sean Longstaff, Pedro and Toni Quetglas; they are hardly the household names that United fans have come to expect from their summer transfer rumours.

The marked shift in the club’s transfer targets, at least initially, shows a demonstrable seismic shift away in policy from signing high profile players with big reputations, transfer fees and wages.

Whether things will stay that way, we shall have to wait and see, but it appears Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has insisted on a return to youth development as a key focus of his plans as permanent manager.


The revamp of the academy is already underway with Ricky Sbragia being moved on from his position as Under 23s manager. Former reserves coach Warren Joyce has been tipped to take over and it seems an important piece of this new era will be using Carrington as the base to mould players into playing the United way.

With any project like this, though, it can take years before you reap the benefits of developing young players. There are also no guarantees of success. The class of ’92 was a rare event not seen since the Busby Babes where a whole host of players came through the academy that all went on to have extremely successful careers.

With United ending their sixth season in a row without a Premier League title, it may feel like a lot to ask for fans to be patient but this rebuilding project is going to take time.

Currently, the United hierarchy are not just looking to restructure the academy but they are reshaping their whole football operations. The appointment of a technical director is taking a fair while but it’s something that Ed Woodward and the directors have to get right.

The new appointment won’t be just in charge of recruitment matters, they will essentially be overseeing a new operating structure by the looks of things.

Darren Fletcher, Rio Ferdinand and Quinton Fortune have already held high-level meetings with the board, according to the MEN, about taking up other roles, designed to increase the depth of footballing knowledge within the club.

Many of the mistakes made in the transfer market, manager appointments and other areas have been due to this lack of overarching strategy, which should have really been put in place after Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure in 2013.

It’s taken a lot longer for the club to realise its failings, but hopefully, the changes that are made this summer will hold the club in good stead for many years to come.

David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World's Football News Network.