Man Utd won’t abandon youth: Giggs

Manchester United may have sold homegrown Danny Welbeck and spent over $241.9m on imports but they will never abandon their policy of giving youngsters a chance, according to Ryan Giggs.

Assistant manager Giggs, who joined as a 14-year-old, made his debut aged 17 and retired as a player last season at 40 after nearly 1,000 matches, said they were proud of the youth system that “separates United from other clubs”.

United are going through a period of transition following the retirement of manager Alex Ferguson last year, the short lived tenure of replacement David Moyes and the arrival of Dutch coach Louis Van Gaal before the current campaign.

“The club will never change,” Giggs said. “The history of the club has been to play exciting football and give youngsters a chance, and that won’t change.

“Ok, Danny has left, which is obviously disappointing because you never want to see a homegrown player leave but we have got a manager now.

“He has a track record of giving youngsters a chance. Tyler Blackett has played every game this season, then you’ve got (Adnan) Januzai, James Wilson coming through so players will always leave but we have to make sure youngsters come through because United fans demand it.

“I want to see young players do what I did. That has always been the way through Manchester United’s history and we don’t want to lose that.”

Giggs, Butt, Phil Neville and his brother Gary, David Beckham and Paul Scholes, the young stars of the famous Class of 92, all went on to have long careers at United.