By Guest Writer Nathan House.
The 2009/2010 season was considered somewhat a dissapointment to many Manchester United fans. Knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Champions League by Bayern Munich, humiliated by Leeds United at Old Trafford in the F.A Cup and pipped to the post by Chelsea in the race to be crowned Premier League champions. This seems nothing though compared to the announcement of the debts crippling the club from Sir Matt Busby Lane.
On the 7th June 2010 is was revealed that the clubs debts had hit 1.1 billion pounds. This is an unexcusable amount of money to owe and at one point put serious doubt over the future of the club. The Glazers have since came out and issued a clear ‘we will not sell’ statement and have bravely claimed they can handle the clubs debts themselves.
This will have serious implications this coming season though. Many claimed that last seasons lack of success, besides the Carling Cup, highlighted the need for new blood and various changes at the club. Is Van Der Sar too old? Is Polish stopper Tomasz Kuszczak good enough to replace the Dutchman between the posts? Does the midfield need a bit of attacking penetration the defensive minds of Carrick and Fletcher and the old legs of Scholes and Giggs sometimes lack? Does Dimitar Berbatov’s poor goalscoring record mean the need for a new striker? Many pundits and fans alike believe the only way to do this is to invest in the squad over the summer. I believe this to be false.
I cast your mind back to 1992, when Manchester United won the Youth Cup with the likes of Scholes, Beckham, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers in the team. That was the backbone of the team in the Red Devils treble-winning side of 1999, the youth can potentially be the key this coming season. The current crop of youngsters deserve their chance, a team with the quality of Manchester United cannot rely on inexperience I hear you say. Well, Federico Macheda was virtually unheard of before his potentially title winning goal against Aston Villa in 2009. Welbeck introduced himself with a screamer against Stoke in the same year. Darron Gibson flourished this season when called up on. Jonny Evans proved a defensive hero during the Reds freak defensive injury crisis last year. There is no doubting that the quality of these youngsters is high and maybe with the debt level as it is at the club, next season is the season to really breed these youngsters with the world class players in United’s ranks, metophorically speaking.
So will we see Macheda hit a contribution of 10/15 goals next season? Will Irishman Gibson become a vital part of midfield? Will new Mexican signing Javier Hernandez flourish alongside Wayne Rooney? Will Rafael Da Silva, Jonny Evans, Chris Smalling and Fabio Da Silva be United’s traditonally rock solid defence in a few seasons time? Manchester United’s squad is already youthful and many star players like Wayne Rooney, Nani, Darren Fletcher, Antonio Valencia and Anderson are still in their early to mid twenties, If the youth can blood in with the current first-team squad then the 2010/2011 season can potentially eclipse any yet.
Do you think United should invest or trust the youth?
