If, as a group of young players, you get given a nickname,
then you must be good.
We saw it with the Sir
Matt Busby 's Busby Babes in the 1950s and
Bobby
Charlton , Duncan Edwards , Roger Byrne,
Tommy Taylor and the rest of Manchester United’s young team would
probably have gone on to be the greatest but for the tragedy of
Munich.
Wilf McGuinness firmly believes that side would have been the
Real Madrid of the 1960s and they were on the cusp of greatness
before February 6, 1958.
We saw it again in 1967 with Celtic’s Lisbon Lions , the first British
team to do what the Babes would surely have done and win the
European Cup. <!-- begin ad tag--> <!-- End ad tag
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Bar Willie Wallace, they had all come through the ranks at
Celtic and Jimmy Johnstone, Billy McNeill and their team-mates were
all born within a 30-mile radius of Celtic Park.
That Celtic team remains one of Britain’s finest and during that
record-breaking season in 1966-67, they won every trophy going -
the Scottish League, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup on
top of the European Cup.
In modern times, no group of players compares to another bunch
of kids with a nickname – Fergie’s Fledglings.
United’s 1992 FA Youth Cup-winning side looks more like an
all-star select for a testimonial rather than a bunch of teenagers
who all came through at the same time at Old Trafford.
Ten of that side went on to play for United’s first team. Three
– Gary Neville, David Beckham and Nicky Butt – became England
stars.
Ryan Giggs? Well no-one needs reminding what he has gone on to
achieve.
And although
Robbie Savage and Keith
Gillespie never made it at Old Trafford, they still carved out
successful Premier League careers and became internationals for
Wales and Northern Ireland respectively.
The following year, Paul Scholes played in the final when United
lost to a talented Leeds side, which would bear such fruit for
David O’Leary.
By 1995, a certain P Neville was the star as youth coach Eric
Harrison’s side beat Tottenham on penalties in the final to lift
the Cup again.
It’s what that group of players have done subsequently which
proves they were the greatest crop of kids to come through at any
one club.
Sure, Arsene Wenger has brought through some talented kids at
Arsenal and Liverpool have produced Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen,
Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard.
West Ham love to talk about The Academy of Football and how they
won the World Cup in 1966 with Moore, Peters and Hurst and have
churned out Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Glen Johnson
in recent times.
While those clubs operate a production line of talent, they
can’t match the concentration, which came through en masse at
United in the early 90s.
Fergie Fledglings have formed the heart of every successful
United side since their 1996 Double winners and the peerless Giggs
is still a force at 36.
He and Scholes played in their 2008 Champions League Final
success against Chelsea in an illustration of their longevity.
They really have proved to Alan Hansen that you can win plenty
with kids.