As shown in Lifeblood, United’s commitment to youth development began in the 1930s with the revolutionary Manchester United Junior Athletic Club, was kept going during the Second World War thanks to innovative schemes like the Goslings and pushed on to remarkable new heights by the visionary Sir Matt Busby.
Under his watch, 74 Academy graduates represented the first team. In the following years, the number of quality players coming through declined. There were certainly still highly impactful youngsters progressing — namely Sammy McIlroy, Arthur Albiston, Norman Whiteside and Mark Hughes — but when a new manager arrived in 1986 with equal ambition and vision to Busby, it was deemed insufficient.