It’s not quite the same beautiful simplicity as Paul Scholes being persuaded to leave Oldham Athletic’s youth squad for Manchester United, or Ryan Giggs’ potential being spotted by an Old Trafford steward while playing for Salford Boys.
But a 16-year-old Danish striker wearing ‘9’, or sometimes ‘16’, in United’s under-18s team has been an emblem of the club’s resolve to overhaul their recruitment of young players, in the past month.
Chido Obi-Martin started scoring within five seconds of his first start for the team, against Nottingham Forest on a Saturday morning three weeks ago and completed a hattrick within 14 minutes, in a 6-0 win.
He scowled when one of his teammates got a boot on a ball he had angled in towards the net during an 8-0 win over Leeds United at their Thorp Arch training base. He felt that should have been his goal.
Obi-Martin has ego and is entitled to it, given that he was one of the most talked about young players in academy football when United prized him away from Arsenal’s academy in July. He has pace and surprisingly good touch for a player standing 6ft 2ins.
It wasn’t just a case of United being able to offer Martin more money than Arsenal were offering this summer. United also convinced him he would have a greater chance of making their first team.
Chido Obi-Martin scored a hat-trick on his first start for Manchester United’s under-18s, netting within five seconds against Nottingham Forest’s youth side on Saturday
The Red Devils prized the Danish youngster away from Arsenal’s youth academy back in July
Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo were positives of the Erik ten Hag era at United
One of the unintended consequences of United’s squad not exactly bursting with world beaters is that that there is a more direct route to Premier League football than at Arsenal, where Mikel Arteta has been less willing to gamble on youth.
Obi-Martin, who scored 32 goals in 18 games for Arsenal’s under-18s and ten in a single under-16s game against Liverpool, will have his sights set on Marcus Rashford’s jersey if he continues his current trajectory. For all of the troubles of the Ten Hag years, 20-year-old Alejandro Garnacho, 19-year-old Kobbie Mainoo and 22-year-old Amad Diallo all prove there’s a pathway.
But United’s are belatedly embracing youth in a far bigger way than that. The club have trailed in the wake of Chelsea and Manchester City when it comes to the purchase of young players as a means of generating profit, if they are not up to the level and are moved on.
City’s academy made £205million in player sales in the four years from 2019, Chelsea made £307million in the same period and United only £90million. Those figures put them 26th in a league table of clubs ranked by revenues generated by player sales, compiled by the CIES Football Observatory earlier this year.
Plans are in the pipeline to create a new structure within which more young players will be signed than in the past, more loaned out to help their development and more sold, to generate a profit valuable to United’s compliance with financial sustainability rules.
Loans, crucial to the development of these players, have come under the aegis of Les Parry, the respected football man originally brought into the club by Sir Alex Ferguson, after a management career at Tranmere and Accrington, as a mentor to the kids making the transition from youth to senior football. Parry delivered some honest truth about what they needed to do to make that leap. Ferguson saw value in the frankness of Parry’s approach and the respect it earned him.
Parry left United at the end of last month in the latest round of redundancies and Mick Cox, the academy manager, will be taking his role for now, but the new structure may bring new personnel to run it. A possible leader of the new structure could be Michael Appleton, who was in United’s youth system between 1994 and 1997 before a modest playing career and success as a manager.
Appleton was sitting next to Dan Ashworth, the club’s sporting director, at the recent under-21s Europa League game with Hertha Berlin. Perhaps a signal that he could head the new structure come the New Year, by which time it is thought that Ineos might have approved its funding.
Gabriele Biancheri is among the highly-rated United starlets in the club’s academy sides
United are keen to generate income by loaning out talented youngsters and selling them for a sizeable profit – as they did with Hannibal Mejbri (above), who they sold to Burnley this summer
Outlay will be needed to set up that department and buy those players who will either be developed for the club or moved on to make a profit for United. Players who have already started to earn cash for United young Spaniard Alvaro Fernandez – picked up in the Spanish system, sent out on loan at Preston and sold to Benfica.
Another is Hannibal Mejbri, now at Burnley, after loan spells at Birmingham City and Sevilla.
United have recently picked a number of the academy systems most promising youth players. They include Gabriele Biancheri from Cardiff City, for whom Sir Alex was brought in to help sell the club’s merits and seal the signature.
Crystal Palace boys Samuel Lusale and James Overy have arrived, as well left back Harry Amass, who arrived from Watford 18 months ago. Sekou Kone is a 18-year-old Senegalese bought from a Malian club side.
Next into the club could be 17-year-old Geovany Quenda, the Sporting Lisbon winger who many clubs are currently looking at.
There are pitfalls to this strategy. Clubs’ clamour for unproven academy players is inflating the wages of these boys to unhealthy levels. And more players around the place could make the route to the first team more complicated, with more pressure on under-18s and under-21s places.
But Obi-Martin has no thoughts of being sold anywhere. United have been blooding him gradually and have not yet given him a full 90 minutes so far this season for the under-18s, but Denmark under-18s manager Morten Esksen did give him a first complete game for the national side against Finland last week. ‘That’s his next step,’ Esksen said. Denmark lost 2-1 to Finland but Obi-Martin starred and scored.
