In all of the transfer hoopla with Man. United in the past few days with the Valencia and Owen signings people have overlooked two very key United youth team transfers. Rodrigo Possebon was sent on loan to Braga in Portugal and today Lee Martin was sold to Roy Keane's Ipswich.
I'll start with the more recent transfer of Lee Martin. He is a perfect example of why loan deals are bad at a club like United. The coaches at United are the some of the best in the world. The training they are getting every week during United training is unparalleled. People say they need to get game experience, but game experience at lower level, or just lower status clubs is no were near the experience they will gain playing against the likes of Rooney, Vidic, Carrick etc. every week. It is one of the United youth set up's most prized traditions that the academy players train with the full team every day.
The game experience is not nearly as important as being with world class coaches and players everyday during training. Getting loaned out to Sunderland does not provide that same opportunity. Here is an interesting tidbit on United youth team products:
Current, established, first team players that came the youth system: Gary Neville, Wes Brown, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, John O'Shea, Johnny Evans, Darren Fletcher (total 7)
Group of those players that went out on loan: John O'Shea, Johnny Evans (total 2)
Out of the seven currently with the United first team , only two went through the loan system. The first John O'Shea is widely considered to be the weakest technically out of that group. The second Johnny Evans really has only had one season with the United first and still has yet to establish himself in the long term.
Back to the Lee Martin situation, here are a list of the clubs he has played with in his Manchester United career:
Royal Antwerp
Rangers
Stoke City
Plymouth Argyle
Sheffield United
Nottingham Forest
This was a player who came to the United youth system from Wimbledon touted to be one of the best English prospects. He wasted away playing with different clubs, and in his entire Manchester United career only made one first team league appearance, against Hull City this year after United had already clinched the title.
Possebon is one of the brightest players with the United reserves at the moment, sending him out on loan may be a very, very bad idea. I really fear for Possebon's future at the moment,with his recent Italian U-20 cap, and a year in Portugal to come, keeping him in Manchester may prove difficult.
Playing in the Championship doesn't make you a better player, training with Manchester United makes you a better player.
Monday, July 6, 2009
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3 comments:
what absolute rubbish. Are you really arrogant enough to think training methods and regimes are much different from one club to another in the top two divisions? Fact is, lee martin is not a very good player so to try and put him in the same ilk as the rest you mentioned is like comparing a mcdonalds cook to gordon ramsey. He wouldn't have made it in utd's team if he'd been there a thousand years. He's crap. He couldn't even impress in forests team. Same as michael stewart a few yrs back. Came with a massive ego just cos he was part of utd set up, and couldn't control, pass, position himself... So, where are utd's demi-god trainers where he was concerned... Same as martin, no amount of supernatural coaches could have turned him into a utd player cos he just aint good enough. How much have you seen these players play? Typical arrogant utd 'fan' where do you people get off... Do you really think you are the only club to let their academy players train with first team? Or do you think this is the case for the same reason you follow utd - it's the only one you've heard of...
1. Training methods are different from club to club. Just like tactics from club to club are different. I'm just pointing out the training under Gary Megson at Bolton is different the Fergueson and co. at United. I'm not saying Fergie's training is vastly superior, just pointing out that it is different.
2. Lee Martin is a good player who had lots of potential as a younger player. He always looked sharp when playing for the reserves and academy.
3. I never said the trainers could turn every single player into United quality, but just look at the players they've produced over the years. It isn't just a coincidence so many great players have come out of that system.
4. Finally about the academy training with the full team. I never said United were the only team that employed the system. I just said that has always been the philosophy since Jimmy Murphy and Matt Busby.
Sam,
You're missing one of the other main reasons that a team like United would send a player out on a loan -- to shop him. The reason five of the seven players you mentioned never went out on loan is that United identified them as being first team possibilities and, as such, kept them around to groom. But if the talent evaluation is saying Championship to mid table EPL...United doesn’t have the ability to get those players enough time to find a buyer for them. So they ship them off to the CCC where they can get first team football and eventually make the club some pounds that they can use to chase really big names on the transfer market.
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