Youth scheme saved United fortune

Manchester United saved at least £20m (€30.13m) when David Beckham, Paul Scholes and other top players were emerging through the club’s youth set-up, according to Alex Ferguson.

Beckham, Scholes, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Keith Gillespie were part of the team who won a major youth tournament in Northern Ireland in 1991.

All of them appeared in last night’s Worthington Cup semi-final win at Blackburn – Gillespie playing for Blackburn – with Scholes scoring two of the goals in a 3-1 United victory.

Ferguson claimed the club hit the jackpot the year the youth team won their first and only Milk Cup tournament on Ulster’s north coast 12 years ago.

Ferguson, who was with Neville in Cultra, Co Down today for the launch of this year’s tournament which will be held in July, attempted to estimate how much he believed one of the world's wealthiest clubs saved by having young players of that quality on their books at the time.

He said: “It’s difficult to assess, but you can’t put an estimate below £20m (€30.13m). It would have to be above that. That’s a safe prediction.”

Ferguson admitted he was unhappy with the club’s youth development programme when he took over in 1986.

He added: “We changed things around. We were scouting everywhere and trialling consistently to get the best young players and we struck gold.

“We struck gold with that group of players. There were some players who were trialled at that time who play in the Premiership at the moment. But we didn’t take them because we were happy with the group we selected.

“You can’t take them all. It’s impossible, but we were satisfied the group we took on was exceptionally good.

“Some young players went on to have careers at other clubs. Robbie Savage has done very well and one or two unfortunately got injured. There was Chris Casper, who had a leg break, and Ben Thornley.”

The Milk Cup had been a foundation for the players even though some of them did not know each other before they left Old Trafford with coach Eric Harrison for Northern Ireland, according to Ferguson.

It was then that the character-building process started.

Ferguson said: “You get one or two players coming through. You look at them, watch how they transport themselves on the playing field and how they do in their ordinary life and say to yourself ‘he’s well brought up’.

“You can see that very easily with young players and on the football field you see the character. That group had it. There’s no doubt about that. They were all winners.”