Man City, Man Utd, their rivals and the homegrown question

Ian Watson

Former Manchester United player Rafael Da Silva criticised Manchester City for failing to produce and promote their own academy talent, unlike their derby rivals. Is that fair comment? Where do City and United stand in comparison to their big six rivals for promoting youth?

Compared to City, United have given three times as many first-team debuts to youth-team graduates over the last five seasons. Indeed, United have offered eight more debuts than the next biggest promoter of youth, Chelsea.

But Arsenal lead the way for academy graduates having the biggest involvement in the Premier League, with their home-grown talent enjoying over 30,000 minutes – the equivalent of 335 matches – more than Man City’s.

To qualify, players must have joined their club prior to turning 18 or represented their club’s youth team/Under-18s. Premier League appearances only…

 

Premier League debutants from academy/youth team since start of 2013/14

Man Utd 21
Chelsea 13
Liverpool 11
Arsenal 8
Tottenham 8
Man City 7

 

Premier League minutes played by their own academy graduates since start of 2013/14

Arsenal 32,056
Man Utd 30,138
Tottenham 22,288
Liverpool 17,334
Chelsea 12,245
Man City 1,868

 

Breakdown of academy graduate involvement per season (those in bold made their debut):

Man Utd

2013/14 – David Moyes, Ryan Giggs
(In order of appearances) Adnan Januzaj, Tom Cleverley, Danny Welbeck, Rafael, Jonny Evans, Darren Fletcher, Ryan Giggs, Fabio, Tom Lawrence, James Wilson – 8974 minutes

2014/15 – Louis van Gaal
Jonny Evans, Paddy McNair, Adnan Januzaj, Tyler Blackett, Rafael, Darren Fletcher, James Wilson, Tom Cleverley, Michael Keane, Danny Welbeck, Jesse Lingard, Andreas Pereira, Tom Thorpe – 5132 minutes

2015/16 – Louis van Gaal
Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Guillermo Varela, Paddy McNair, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Adnan Januzaj, Andreas Periera, Donald Love, Nick Powell, James Wilson, Will Keane, James Weir – 4369 minutes

2016/17 – Man Utd – Jose Mourinho
Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Axel Tuanzebe, Scott McTominay, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Joel Periera, Demetri Mitchell, Josh Harrop, Angel Gomes – 6354 minutes

2017/18 (34 games) – Jose Mourinho
Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay, Axel Tuanzebe – 5309 minutes

Total minutes – 30,138
Debutants – 21

 

 

Chelsea

2013/14 – Jose Mourinho
John Terry, Tomas Kalas, Ryan Bertrand, Nathan Ake, John Swift –  3316 minutes

2014/15 – Jose Mourinho
John Terry, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Nathan Ake, Andreas Christensen, Isaiah Brown – 3593 minutes

2015/16 – Jose Mourinho, Guus Hiddink
John Terry, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, Jake Clarke-Salter – 2554 minutes

2016/17 – Antonio Conte
John Terry, Nathaniel Chalobah, Nathan Ake, Rueben Loftus-Cheek, Ola Aina – 802 minutes

2017/18 (33 games) – Antonio Conte
Andreas Christensen, Charly Musonda, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Jeremie Boga, Ethan Ampadu – 1980 minutes

Total minutes – 12,245
Debutants – 13

 

Liverpool

2013/14 – Brendan Rodgers
Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling, Jon Flanagan, Martin Kelly, Brad Smith, Jordon Ibe – 7250 minutes

2014/15 – Brendan Rodgers
Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling, Jordon Ibe, Jerome Sinclair – 5930 minutes

2015/16 – Brendan Rodgers, Jurgen Klopp
Jordon Ibe, Jon Flanagan, Sheyi Ojo, Brad Smith, Connor Randall, Cameron Brannagan, Pedro Chirivella, Jordan Rossiter, Sergi Canos – 2573 minutes

2016/17 – Jurgen Klopp
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Woodburn, Ovie Ejaria – 250 minutes

2017/18 (34 games) – Jurgen Klopp
Trent Alexander-Arnold, – 1331 minutes

Total minutes – 17,334
Debutants – 11

 

Arsenal

2013/14 – Arsene Wenger
Wojciech Szczesny, Kieran Gibbs, Jack Wilshere, Serge Gnabry, Niklas Bendtner, Chuba Akpom – 7726 minutes

2014/15 – Arsene Wenger
Francis Coquelin, Hector Bellerin, Wojciech Szczesny, Jack Wilshere, Emiliano Martinez, Chuba Akpom, Ainsley Maitland-Niles – 5784 minutes

2015/16 Arsene Wenger
Hector Bellerin, Francis Coquelin, Alex Iwobi, Jack Wilshere – 5657 minutes

2016/17 Arsene Wenger
Hector Bellerin, Francis Coquelin, Alex Iwobi, Kieran Gibbs, Emiliano Martinez, Jack Wilshere, Ainsley Maitland-Niles – 6665 minutes

2017/18 (33 games) Arsene Wenger
Hector Bellerin, Alex Iwobi, Jack Wilshere, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Francis Coquelin, Reiss Nelson, Joe Willock, Edward Nketiah – 6224 minutes

Total minutes – 32,056
Debutants – 8

 

Tottenham

2013/14 – Andre Villas-Boas, Tim Sherwood
Andros Townsend, Nabil Bentaleb, Harry Kane, Milos Veljkovic, Alex Pritchard – 2827 minutes

2014/15 – Mauricio Pochettino
Harry Kane, Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb, Andros Townsend – 7853 minutes

2015/16  – Mauricio Pochettino
Harry Kane, Ryan Mason, Tom Carroll, Nabil Bentaleb, Josh Onomah, Andros Townsend, Alex Pritchard – 4982 minutes

2016/17  – Mauricio Pochettino
Harry Kane, Harry Winks, Josh Onomah, Filip Lesniak, Tom Carroll – 3035 minutes

2017/18 (34 games) –  Mauricio Pochettino
Harry Kane, Harry Winks, Kyle Walker-Peters – 3591 minutes

Total minutes – 22,288
Debutants – 8

 

Manchester City

2013/14 – Manuel Pellegrini
Micah Richards, Dedryck Boyata – 216 minutes

2014/15 – Manuel Pellegrini
Jose Pozo, Dedryck Boyata – 228 minutes

2015/16 – Manuel Pellegrini
Kelechi Iheanacho, Bersant Celina, Manu Garcia – 776 minutes

2016/17 – Pep Guardiola
Kelechi Iheanacho, Aleix Garcia – 601 minutes

2017/18 (33 games) – Pep Guardiola
Brahim DiazPhil Foden – 47 minutes

Total minutes – 1,868
Debutants – 7

 

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