Scott McTominay goes into Manchester United’s milestone game at home to Everton tomorrow convinced the club’s new generation can bring the glory days back to Old Trafford.
It will be the 4,000th fixture in a row in which United have had a player produced by their academy in the match-day squad — a remarkable sequence stretching back to 1937.
The long list of graduates includes McTominay, the Scotland midfielder who has established himself as a key figure under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer this season. He believes a club famous for producing the Busby Babes and Class of ’92 is again on the cusp of something unique.
‘This place is special,’ said McTominay. ‘We’re coming back up. You have to have top-class players, but then you also have to have top young players who are wanting to come in and learn. That’s the balance that not every club in the world can get.
‘It’s not just playing academy players for the sake of it, it’s playing them because the manager believes in the players and believes he can win trophies playing us. Hopefully in the seasons to come we can go on and win trophies. That’s got to be the dream.’
On the 4,000 milestone, McTominay added: ‘It’s amazing. In the youth team, we always had staff saying to us about the consecutive games we’ve had with a player from the academy. When you think you have 50 to 60 games a season, to get to 4,000 is incredible.’
Mason Greenwood is the latest star to roll off the production line and the teenage striker underlined his potential with two goals against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League on Thursday night.
Afterwards, Solskjaer revealed that he had his picture taken with Greenwood when the player was only seven because he sensed the boy was going to make it one day.
‘I actually do remember when I met him for the first time because my son Noah was training at The Cliff as an eight-year-old and Mason was seven,’ said Solskjaer. ‘The first time I saw him, he stood out. I asked him for the photo because I knew he was going to be a player.’