Young Players to Take on Major Role at Man U This Season
With the World Cup this summer, many of the football world’s top stars will be fatigued in the next season. This should open the door for younger players to take on a larger role with their clubs.
So many of the elite clubs in Europe saw many of their stars play in South Africa this summer and will have to rely on other resources to maintain their dominance over their leagues. This is certainly the case for Manchester United.
As a consequence of the Red Devils’ influx of world class football stars, many of whom played in the World Cup will not return to pre-season training at the end of the month. Established veterans like Wayne Rooney, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick and Ji-Sung Park will not return for a couple of weeks.
Manchester United’s bench boss Sir Alex Ferguson insists that players such as 22-year-old Mexican international Javier Hernandez will play an important role in the team next season. Hernandez signed with the English club this summer.
“The history of Manchester United is quite simple,” Ferguson said “It’s always been based on young people and that’s where we’re more comfortable. I think our fans are more comfortable too so producing players is a big incentive for us. We know the response we get from supporters when we produce a player through the ranks, through our youth system. It’s a fantastically satisfying thing also.”
This summer the Red Devils have searched for help from other teams as they have targeted several players for transfers. Among those include Wesley Sneijder of Inter Milan, who was instrumental in the Netherland’s run in South Africa; and 19-year old sensation Mario Balotelli who has had his behavioural problems with the Nerazzurri.
Ferguson believes though that what’s really important is for his club develop their younger players and believes they are the future of the club. Ferguson is pleased so far with the development of the club’s younger assets and believes it is key to give these young players the opportunity to sign.
“At the moment we have a collection of young players who have been growing up at the club for the last few years like Danny Welbeck, Jonny Evans, Darron Gibson and Federico Macheda. These young players are developing very well at the club.”
That may be the best route to go for the Red Devils. Many of their transfer targets would be really difficult to lure away from their clubs. On top of Sneijder and Balotelli, the club has also tried to land 23-year old Luis Suarez of Ajax, but it does not appear that the club is interested in selling him, although Suarez would be interested in a move to the Premier League. The Uruguayan international has claimed that he has been eying a move to England.
Meanwhile Ferguson is just looking ahead to the season and the development of the players currently in his hands.
“We’ve a fine collection of young players who, if you don’t give an opportunity to, are going to stagnate and move to other clubs who’ll get the benefit of the work we’ve done with them. We’ve had experience of that in the past, so we try to avoid that as best we can and make sure we make the right decisions about these boys’ careers, because most of them are very talented.”
Manchester United is looking to regain the league crown as Chelsea have been the class of the league the last couple of seasons. Ferguson has to go with who he has and not just go for a short-term fix with an expensive purchase or two.
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