Extrapolation Sport

‘Fortress Carrington‘ is well known in the footballing world, particularly for The Class of 92, and its ever rolling factory of emerging talents. However, over the last few years the reputation has slipped drastically. Losing 1-0 to a 10 man Everton was bad enough. Losing to a 10-man Everton that featured more Manchester United academy graduates on the field, at Old Trafford, is staggering. For a club that prides itself on ‘Youth, Courage and Success’, standards have exorbitantly nosedived.

Cristiano Ronaldo, in an interview with Piers Morgan in 2022, shared that upon his return to The Red Devils, the training facilities had not improved since he left the club for Real Madrid in 2009. The Portuguese stated, “nothing changed” and that the complex had “stopped in time”.

It was well documented that the standards had fallen under the Glazer brothers, through sporting success, financial records and general reputation surrounding the club.

Mounted pressure on new owners INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe forced them to dig into their pockets. They began a £50 million revamp of Carrington Training Facilities that was completed in August 2025. Despite that, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been quoted from the Times business podcast. He said, “The academy has really slipped at Manchester United.”

These issues, however, aren’t binary. It will take time to shake off the cultural shift that the club has endured over the past decade. During this time, mediocrity and failure have become all too familiar.

One instance of INEOS’ cost cutting measures impacting the academy came earlier this year. They blocked the opportunity to play at Old Trafford for the FA Youth Cup.* This tradition has empowered graduates over many years. In 2022, the likes of Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo played at Old Trafford in-front of 67,000 people as they lifted the trophy for the U18 Fa Youth Cup.

Back in 2024, Marcus Rashford, who is now at Barcelona, posted a picture of himself. The photo included Manchester United Academy graduates after their 2-1 FA Cup Final victory over Man City. His post boasted, “The academy that keeps producing⚽️”, featuring Mainoo and Garnacho, both goal scorers. Manchester United Academy Graduates celebrating beating Manchester City in the 2024 FA Cup Final.

The 180 that the clubs culture has undergone under INEOS has been startling. Recently suffering an embarrassing defeat to Everton in the Premier League, where the opposition (with 10 men on the field at Old Trafford) had more United academy graduates in blue (James Garner and Dwight McNeil). The home sides line-up did not include anyone from Carrington. This omission put the club’s 88-year record of naming an academy player in the match-day squad in grave danger.

Since INEOS bought their minority stake (27.7%) in February 2024, for £1.25bn, the new ownership have overseen the misuse of several academy players. Starting with Scott McTominay (£25m) who had 255 appearances for the first team, and is now blossoming as the current Serie A MVP. Following that, Elanga (£20m) and Garnacho (£40m) had been sold for pennies compared to their value. All three of those players are now starters in the Champions League for their respective clubs and their careers are progressing while Manchester United are slowly trying to trudge their way up the league from their 15th place finish last season.

Kobbie Mainoo was the Man of the Match in his first ever start for England as an 18-year-old at the Euros. Now, he is facing an uphill battle for minutes in an important World Cup year. There are limited opportunities after United failed to qualify for European football. They also succumbed to Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup. He is now deemed not good enough to start in a failing system with Ugarte getting minutes ahead of him.

Marcus Rashford’s situation needs a whole article itself. He was forced out of the club despite being the top scorer for Amorim at the time. He is a political pioneer. He is a voice for so many disadvantaged children across the country. He also donned the famous ’10’ shirt. What sort of club or management mishandles such a role model?

Incompetence and negligence. It is no secret the INEOS have been trying to cut the wage bill. Rashford now being one of the most productive wingers in the world (18 G/A for club and country in November), playing for Barcelona, its obvious that footballing output was not the reason for his departure. INEOS have cut long-standing Manchester United cult-heros across their period of ownership. Opting to let high contracts expire rather than renegotiate, De Gea, Varane, Ronaldo, Sancho, Martial, Eriksen, Rashford and now Casemiro, Maguire, Shaw are on the chopping block next. While this policy is welcomed and much needed at the club, adding Rashford to that list is just discourteous. Pairing that with Amorim saying he would replace him with Jorge Vital, a 64-year-old goalkeeping coach and immediately offering his number to newcomer Cunha.

All this disrespect led to Rashford being frozen out the squad and told to find a new challenge, which resulted in him speaking to the media and saying he has no ill-thoughts of United, but needs a new challenge. Now the winger is flying and United are recently believed to be back in the market for a left sided-versatile attacker that can play in multiple positions, I wonder if there are any players they could look at that fit that mould?

Supporting the claim that it is based on wages, the cost-cutting measures led to over 200 initially being cut, with 150-250 expected to follow up. Including Sir Alex Ferguson’s contract as a club ambassador. Even recently, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, United legends, have both stated on their podcast ‘The Good, The Bad and The Football’, that they no longer know anyone at the club and it’s has all completely changed since their playing days. Perhaps that has something to do with the disconnect that the club and the fans are experiencing at the moment.

The club has been gutted, and time will tell if that was a good idea or not. Make no mistake, change was needed, but it remains to be seen if INEOS are the ones to oversee it, and with rumours circling that potential bidders are hovering to buy out the INEOS stake and take ownership. There is actual possibility if the price is met to buy the shares that Sir Jim Ratcliffe has at the right price.

*Since this article was written, United permitted the U18s to play their FA Youth Cup game against Peterborough, on the 9th December. The young starlet, JJ Gabriel scored the only goal of the game, became the youngest scorer in the FA Youth Cup history, at just 15.