Harrison was responsible for nurturing a host of players through
the United youth system including Paul Scholes, the Neville
brothers, Nicky Butt , Wes Brown and Ryan Giggs, and still has a
minor role at the club.
The coach was speaking about the Ronaldo saga which looks likely to
conclude with the winger leaving United and heading for Real
Madrid.
Having watched Alex Ferguson rebuild his side a number of times
after allowing key players to leave, Harrison is convinced he can
do it again should Ronaldo leave.
“Bryan Robson, Ince, Kanchelskis, and Hughes were all great
players,” said Harrison in the Manchester Evening News, “But
Ronaldo will be harder to replace because there is no one in the
juniors to do it.”
Harrison revealed that allowing players to leave in the past hadn’t
caused too many problems but that it might be a problem now. He
said: “Back then we had the golden generation. We were always
confident they would eventually play in the first team, it was a
matter of when.”
With no juniors at Manchester United capable of following in
Ronaldo’s footsteps, Harrison admitted that there was only one man
United should attempt to replace the Portuguese winger with.
He said: “Ronaldo is probably the best player in the world right at
the moment. If you were twisting my arm, I’d say the only guy who
can replace him is Messi and there are no guarantees that Barcelona
will be willing to sell him. That means it might be a more
difficult situation.”
