That doesnвЂ™t sound like a club giving up on its youth principles. And that third game was a 3-1 defeat of Barcelona, with the youngsters scoring two goals. Seven of eleven players who finished the first three games were academy players. Just look at the pre-season squad that United fielded in the States. Be it by newspapers, managers, or whoever else there is who has a say on these things, itвЂ™s not like youth football is on the road to a complete stop. IвЂ™m writing from a Manchester United point of view since thatвЂ™s what IвЂ™m most familiar with, but itвЂ™s easy to see that this club, and probably all other clubs in England, are not giving up on young players just yet.ДЇirst of all, as is with everything in English football, I think that the problem is exaggerated. Is it all gloom and doom, however? I do think that youth still has a chance, despite whatever Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho have been saying lately. The opportunities for academy talent look increasingly limited as clubs instead go in search of famous names, too impatient to grow their own. Clubs like United are supposedly вЂabandoning their youth systemsвЂ™ clubs like Manchester City never really had them in the first place. UnitedвЂ™s famous class each made more than 10 appearances in the treble-winning season of вЂ™99 the average number of under-23s in squads nowadays are 2.5. Truth be told, the statistics today do not spell good things for youth systems in England. In the excellent Class of 92, Gary Neville is sceptical that history will repeat itself. The game was but a taster of the magic, eleven premier league titles and two champions league titles that were to come. Beckham, Gary Neville and Nicky Butt played the whole match, each of them only nineteen. Watch the grainy video footage on youtube. Ryan Giggs by then had established himself as a first-team member, but it was the rest of the teenagers who burst onto the scene that night. But one night in 1994, a Manchester United-Galatasaray game set the tone of the Red Devils for the next twenty years. Galatasaray donвЂ™t exactly make for famous opponents.

ThereвЂ™s a Turkish club whose name doesnвЂ™t come up very often, except in Champions League qualifying draws.

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