Manchester United is often known for its academy graduates where the most famous to date is the class of 92. There they have academy graduates filled by: Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, and Nicky Butt where the greatest achievement was the treble winner in 1999.
Here are some names of Manchester United graduates who were less fortunate but managed to make their professional debuts in other teams, especially in the 2000s until now:
Sam Johnstone
Entering the Manchester United academy in 2010-2011, he has always been the number one goalkeeper choice in the academy. In fact, he is the longest Manchester United player who has served a long loan period from the Oldham Athletic team, Scunthorpe United, Walsall, Yeovil Town, Doncaster Rovers, Preston North End, Aston villa for 7 years until finally he was released to the West Bromwich albion team. Unfortunately for 7 years he had never made his debut at Manchester United itself.
Donald Love
The next academy product is Donald Love at Manchester United. He signed a professional career at MU in 2013 but he only made his debut in the first team when Louis van Gaal’s coaching career at United against Sunderland in 2016. Then, he is being released to Sunderland.
Ryan Shawcross
Entering the Manchester United academy in 2018 just like Johnstone. He has never made his debut at MU but his career was quite successful at Stoke City.
Paddy McNair
Not coming from the original Manchester United academy, but he also studied at MU and made his debut in September 2014. Unfortunately he was not the first choice of Jose Mourinho and was sold in 2016 to Sunderland for a dowry of 5.5 million pounds with a package with Donald Love.
Cameron b jackson
He made his debut during Louis van Gaal’s coaching. Unlike some of the players above, Cameron Borthwick Jackson is still a Manchester United player until now and is on loan at Leeds United. With the presence of a new left-back, Alex Telles, it might be difficult for him re-penetrated the Manchester United main team and became the choice by Gunnar Solskjaer.
Darron Gibson
Darron Gibson is one of the lucky players who was trained directly by Sir Alex made his professional debut in 2005 with a total of 31 appearances and scored 3 goals with United. He still has to lose to compete with Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher. In 2012 he must be sold to Everton.
Tom Cleverley
Starting an academy career in Bradford City until finally studying at the Manchester United academy for 9 years, he finally making his professional debut at Manchester United under the leadership of Alex Ferguson. He was predicted to be a replacement for Paul Scholes but in fact he failed to prove himself. He then was sold to Everton in 2015 in the coaching era of Louis van Gaal.
Adnan Januzaj
Born in Brussels Belgium and studied at various academies from FC Brussels, Anderlecht finally entered the Manchester United academy in 2011 and making his debut in the late era of Alex Ferguson. He had become a promising player in the David Moyes era by appearing 50 times and playing as the starting eleven at Manchester United. However, he failed to prove himself even though he had used number 11, a legacy from Ryan Giggs.
Danny Welbeck
He pursued a career in the United academy from 2001 to 2008 and made his debut in the Alex Ferguson era. He made 90 appearances for United before finally becoming an option for van Gaal’s coaching era. Finally, he was released into Arsenal in 2014.
Federico Macheda
Saving United during a match against Aston Villa in 2009 to secure the English league title, he was hailed by fans as a promising prospective player. However, Sir Alex saw how arrogant he was and decided to buy a player for the attacking position. He was officially go to Cardiff City in 2014 as previously he was loaned to several clubs.
