Manchester United F.C. Under-21s and Academy

Manchester United Reserves

Manchester United's badge
Full name	Manchester United Reserves
Nickname(s)	The Red Devils, United
Founded	1878, as Newton Heath LYR FC
Ground	Ewen Fields Hyde United
Capacity	4,100
Chairman	Joel & Avram Glazer
Manager	Brian McClair (Reserves) Paul McGuinness (Under 18s)
League	Barclays Premiership Reserve League North
2006-07	Premier Reserve League North 2nd
Home colours Away colours

Manchester United F.C. Reserves are the reserve team of Manchester United F.C.. They play in the Barclays Premiership Reserve League North. They have been champions four times since the league's inauguration in 1999; in 2002, 2003, 2005 & 2006. They also participate in the Manchester Senior Cup, although in recent years the teams entered in this competition have featured an increasing number of youth players.

The current Reserve team manager is Brian McClair, who was appointed for the second time in the summer of 2006 upon the departure of René Meulensteen. His assistant is Jimmy Ryan. Manchester United Reserves play their home games at Ewen Fields, the home ground of Hyde United. In previous seasons, the team has also played at Moss Lane, the home of Altrincham F.C.. From the beginning of the 2007-08 season, the reserves will play all of their home matches at the Victoria Stadium in Wincham, the home of Northwich Victoria.

The most successful Manchester United Reserves coach has been René Meulensteen. Meulensteen won four of the five available reserve team trophies in the 2004-05 season - the Barclays Premiership Reserve League North, the Pontins Holiday Reserve League North, the Pontins Holiday Reserve League Cup and the national play off between the winners of the Barclays Premiership Reserve League North and the Barclays Premiership Reserve League South. The team also finished runners-up in the Manchester Senior Cup. Meulensteen followed this up in 2006 by leading the team once more to the Northern and National FA Premier Reserve League titles, and going one better in the Manchester Senior Cup.

The current captain of the reserve side is Kieran Lee.

Reserves

Current squad

• As of 10 August 2007, according to official site.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
23	DF	NIR	Jonny Evans
25	DF	ENG	Danny Simpson
28	MF	IRL	Darron Gibson
30	MF	ENG	Lee Martin
35	DF	ENG	Kieran Lee
36	DF	SCO	David Gray
37	DF	NIR	Craig Cathcart

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
38	GK	ENG	Tom Heaton
39	FW	ENG	Fraizer Campbell
—	MF	ENG	Michael Barnes
—	DF	ENG	Adam Eckersley
—	MF	ENG	Séan Evans
—	DF	ENG	Michael Lea

On loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	ENG	Ritchie Jones (at Yeovil Town until 31 Dec 2007)
—	DF	WAL	Ryan Shawcross (at Stoke City until 1 Jan 2008)

Manager history

• Brian Kidd (1988-1991)
• Jimmy Ryan (1991-1999)
• Mike Phelan (1999-00)
• Brian McClair (2001)
• Ricky Sbragia (2001-2005)
• René Meulensteen (2005-2006)
• Brian McClair (2006-)

Honours

• FA Premier Reserve League North Champions: 3
  • 2002, 2005, 2006

• FA Premier Reserve League National Playoff Winners: 2
  • 2005, 2006

• Pontins Holiday Reserve League North: 9
  • 1913, 1921, 1939, 1947, 1956, 1960, 1994, 1996, 1997

• Pontins Holiday League Division 1 West: 1
  • 2005

• Pontins Holiday Reserve League Cup: 1
  • 2005

• Manchester Senior Cup: 22
  • 1908, 1910, 1912, 1913, 1920, 1924, 1926, 1931, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1948, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1964, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006

The Academy

The academy is the core of the youth setup at Manchester United, and has been responsible for producing some of Manchester United's greatest ever players, including the club's top five all-time appearance makers, Bobby Charlton, Ryan Giggs, Bill Foulkes, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville. The current academy is based at the club's state-of-the-art Trafford Training Centre, a 70 acre site in the Manchester suburb of Carrington.

The academy comprises age-group teams ranging from Under-9's up to the flagship Under-18's, who currently compete in Group C of the FA Premier Academy League and in the FA Youth Cup (a tournament which they have won a record nine times). The Under-16's and Under-18's typically play their academy league games at 11am on Saturday mornings at Carrington, while Youth Cup games are generally played at either Hyde United's Ewen Fields ground (where Manchester United's reserve teams play their home games) or the club's 76,000-capacity Old Trafford home, in order to cater for the greater number of supporters these fixtures attract.

Paul McGuinness is the head coach of the under 18s academy side. He was also in charge of the side that played, and lost in the 2007 FA Youth Cup final against Liverpool.

In 2007 the Academy were the inaugural winners of the Champions Youth Cup, intended to be a Club World Championship for youth sides, beating Juventus 1-0 in the final in Malaysia.

Current Academy players

	Player	DOB	Position	International Caps	Previous Club
3rd Year Scholars (players born between 1 September 1988 and 31 August 1989 )
	Sam Hewson	28 November 1988	CM	Capped at under-19 level	–
	James Chester	23 January 1989	CB	–	–
	Febian Brandy	4 February 1989	ST	Capped at under-18 level	–
	Ron-Robert Zieler	12 February 1989	GK	Capped at under-17 level	1. FC Köln
	Richard Eckersley	12 March 1989	RB/LB	–	–
	Chris Fagan	11 May 1989	ST	Capped at under-17 level	–
	Tom Cleverley	12 August 1989	LB	–	–
2nd Year Scholars (players born between 1 September 1989 and 31 August 1990 )
	Antonio Bryan	4 October 1989	RW/S	–	–
	James Derbyshire	21 November 1989	CM	–	–
	Daniel Drinkwater	5 March 1990	CM	–	–
	Ben Amos	10 April 1990	GK	Capped at under-17 level	–
	Conor McCormack	18 May 1990	CM	Capped at Under-17 level	–
	Corry Evans	30 July 1990	CM	Capped at Under-17 level	–
	Magnus Wolff Eikrem	8 August 1990	CM/RM	Capped at Under-16 level	Molde FK
	Daniel Galbraith	19 August 1990	LW	Capped at Under-17 level	Heart of Midlothian
1st Year Scholars (players born between 1 September 1990 and 31 August 1991 )
	Gary Woods	1 October 1990	GK	Capped at Under-16 level	–
	Kenny Strickland	10 October 1990	CB	–	–
	David Williams	23 November 1990	ST	–	–
	Joseph Dudgeon	26 November 1990	DF	–	–
	Daniel Welbeck	26 November 1990	RW/ST	Capped at Under-17 level	–
	Scott Moffatt	7 December 1990	CB	–	–
	Christopher Curran	5 January 1991	LW/RW	Capped at Under-17 level	–
	Cameron Stewart	8 April 1991	RB	Capped at Under-16 level	–
	Oliver Norwood	12 April 1991	DM	Capped at Under-16 level	–
	Evandro de Carvalho Brandão	4 May 1991	ST	Capped at Under-17 level	Walsall
	Matthew James	28 July 1991	CM	Capped at Under-16 level	–
Potential Future Scholars (players born after 1 September 1991 )
	Oliver Gill	15 September 1990	CB	–	–
	Conor Devlin	23 September 1991	GK	Capped at Under-17 level	–
	Liam McClair	7 May 1991	MF	–	–
	Nicholas Ajose	7 October 1991	ST	Capped at Under-16 level	–

Honours

• Champions Youth Cup: 1
  • 2007

• FA Youth Cup: 9
  • 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1964, 1992, 1995, 2003

• FA Youth Cup runners-up: 4
  • 1982, 1986, 1993, 2007

Staff

• Academy Director & Reserve Team Manager: Brian McClair
• Director of Youth Football & Reserve Team Coach: Jimmy Ryan
• Assistant Academy Director for 17-21 year olds & Under-18s Head Coach: Paul McGuinness
• Assistant Academy Director for 9-16 year olds & Under-11/12s Head Coach: Tony Whelan
• Under 13-16s Head Coach: Mark Dempsey
• Under 11-12s Coach: Tony Whelan
• Under 9-10s Head Coach: Eamon Mulvey
• Technical Skills Development Coach: René Meulensteen
• Director of Goalkeeping Training: Richard Hartis
• Academy Doctor: Dr. Tony Gill
• Senior Academy Physiotherapist: Mandy Johnson
• Academy Physiotherapists: John Davin & Richard Merron

Notable former Academy and Youth Team players

• Arthur Albiston
• John Aston, Jr.
• Phil Bardsley
• David Beckham
• George Best
• Jackie Blanchflower
• Shay Brennan
• Wes Brown
• Roger Byrne
• Nicky Butt
• Johnny Carey
• Bobby Charlton
• Eddie Colman
• Kenny Cooper
• Sylvan Ebanks-Blake
• Duncan Edwards
• Jonny Evans

• Darren Fletcher
• Bill Foulkes
• Darron Gibson
• Ryan Giggs
• Johnny Giles
• Keith Gillespie
• Shaun Goater
• Brian Greenhoff
• Jonathan Greening
• David Healy
• Mark Hughes
• David Johnson
• David Jones
• Brian Kidd
• Jovan Kirovski
• Lee A. Martin
• Sammy McIlroy

• Paul McShane
• Gary Neville
• Phil Neville
• Jimmy Nicholl
• John O'Shea
• David Pegg
• Gerard Pique
• David Platt
• Kieran Richardson
• Mark Robins
• Giuseppe Rossi
• Robbie Savage
• Paul Scholes
• Jonathan Spector
• Nobby Stiles
• Dennis Viollet
• Norman Whiteside

External links

• Man Utd Reserves (Official Site)
• Man Utd Academy (Official Site)
• FA Premier Reserve League North
• Manchester United Reserves Website