Gill backs home-grown youth

January 19, 2011
Posted by Steven Tan | Source from SkySports.com
Manchester United chief executive David Gill feels the club will continue producing an influx of home-grown, first-team players.
 
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, now in his 25th year at the club, has built his legacy on the production of home-grown players such as Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary and Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and David Beckham.
 
Following the remarkable emergence of those individuals during the mid-1990s, the Scot has had to look outside the United academy to develop players.
 
However, the likes of Darren Fletcher, John O'Shea and Jonny Evans have all become first-team players since.
 
And with Giggs, Scholes and Gary Neville still at the club, Gill feels that the team will always have a British backbone despite the approaching retirement of their three stalwarts.
 
"I don't think we'd ever field a team full of foreigners," he told the National newspaper.
 
"When those great players, who have been part of the team for 15-odd years retire, others will step up.
 
"Hopefully we'll have players coming through the academy who understand what being a United player means."
 
Gill also backed Ferguson, whose side are still unbeaten in the Premier League, to use his experience to go on and win a record-breaking 19th league title in May.
 
Gill said: "In any walk of life the key person is the man at the top. He (Ferguson) has seen it, done it and knows what to do in particular situations.
 
"It's one of the strengths of the Premier League, the fact that we do distribute our money broadly. The television rights are sold collectively and distributed according to a predetermined formula.
 
"That means that there is that sense of competition. Manchester City, obviously, with Abu Dhabi [investment] are improving all the time."
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