Local youths have ever been an important pool to find the best talent around, in fact, almost every big side maintains a training facility where they pick the youth talent, sharpen them, and add them into team if they qualify. But there is one drawback to this popular approach of finding new players as well, i.e., if two sides belong to same county, available talent becomes choosy and often opts for the facility where he gets better facilities, good atmosphere, and all that. For that reason, such competitive city mates often try to present themselves as the bettor atmosphere for aspiring soccer players to grow as a complete player. We have seen how Madrid sides (Atlético and Real) often fight for snatching promising players in their teen ages. If we talk about English soccer, Manchester United and Manchester City are two such giants who have ever been the biggest contenders for the English topflight but how they both manage to be in the leading race is because they mostly hire foreign players, secondly both of them first fight with each other for luring youth players to join their training academies.
Recently, when Manchester City unveiled its state of the art training facility, many suspected The Red Devils could now face stiff competition since every aspiring player would now love to join the astonishing atmosphere City claims to offer. Paul Scholes is one such elite who started his career from United’s youth academy back in 1990 and remained loyal to them throughout his professional career. He pointed out the problem his side could face in future and said, “When I was a kid, it was the case among the lads I played football with that if Manchester United wanted to sign you then joining Manchester City was not even a consideration.
“United did not have to persuade or offer inducements. We would have walked there ourselves. Thirty years on, and the picture in Manchester is very different and, as a United fan, it worries me. Trying to look at it from a neutral perspective, I have to say that what City have achieved is impressive and their impact on the youth scene in Manchester began long before the opening of their City Football Academy this week, an event which seems to have generated more publicity in some quarters than the arrival of Christmas itself.”
Indirectly, he also admired their arch rivals for their initiative in providing world class infrastructure for young talent and added, “It has been no secret among people I know in football that City have taken great strides in their youth academy programmes, to the extent that there are even United players past and present who have, or at least once had, sons at City’s academy.”