Time to Shut Down the Man U Academy
- Fred
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
When Lionel Messi left Barcelona, he was literally crying.
His agent father, Jorge Messi, had given his son 3 choices for his future. The year was 2021 and by advanced soccer analytics, his son may have been one of the best players on the planet, but being in his mid-30's, his upcoming playing trajectory was downward.
Dad Messi narrowed the bidding down to 3 offers:
Saudi Arabia for a rumored 1 billion dollars.
Major League Soccer's Inter Miami for hundreds of millions of dollars, and ownership stakes in future endeavors.
Barcelona for pennies on the dollar
And Messi chose.... Barcelona.
When Barcelona went to turn in the contract parameters for Messi to La Liga, the league declined the contract based on Barcelona running afoul of Financial Fair Play rules.
They then limited the team to signing Messi for magic beans and shiny nickels. (Mostly exaggeration).
And then Messi chose.... Inter Miami.
Not only couldn't Barcelona sign Messi, but they couldn't sign anyone, so they promoted a ton of kids from their Youth Academy. When Messi left, did it cripple Barcelona? No, they started to play teenagers and kept winning.
According to Yahoo! Sports, this season Barcelona was the youngest team, by a whole year, in all of La Liga. Since Messi left, the team has come in 1st twice and 2nd twice. 17 year old Lamine Yamal is the future of the team.
Whoever is in charge of player development at Barcelona deserves a big raise.
As ranked by Forbes, both Manchester United and Barcelona are 2 of the top 5 teams in Europe when it comes to the valuation of their franchises.
What does all this Barcelona talk have to do with Manchester United? Like Major League Baseball in America, there is no salary cap in the Premier League.
Top flight soccer in Europe has financial fair play rules, where you can only spend what you make, but everyone circumvents that model. Long story short, whoever makes the most money tends to win.
It is a very simple equation. When all the teams can only spend the same amount of money, like in the NFL, it's hard to win every year with all things being equal.
This year, cash rich Manchester United fell to 15th place in the Premier League, their worst finish in 50 years. Did the Youth Academy come to Man U's rescue? No. The parent team kept trotting out high priced never-weres.
Once Manchester United realized they weren't getting relegated, or playing for the Champions League, they should have promoted some youngsters.
You argue that they did? The average age of the Manchester United team was the 6th youngest in the Premier League?
<listen closely> --- THEY CAME IN FIFTEENTH!
If your business plan is to just sign high priced free agents over the summer, you might as well shut down the academy now, those kids suck.
8 Barcelona players came up through the Youth System this year. What would have happened in Spain if Barcelona came in 15th with those kids? They would have burned their youth academy to the ground.
I don't blame Jim Ratcliffe for anything, he's too new. The majority owners of Manchester United, the Glazer Brothers, had every advantage in the world and ran that team right into the ground. They hired Ratcliffe to be a scapegoat, not to be the eventual owner. You want to see some carnage? Watch what gets set aflame in Manchester if United gets relegated next year.
Oh, and somehow, they're bleeding money:
There are no untouchable players at Manchester United. First person you get rid of is Andre Onana Onana. You need to sign someone who can steal you some games at goalkeeper. Next player to go?
THE WHOLE LOT OF 'EM!
I was proof-reading the article when I remembered Man U had an exhibition game today:
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