Date: 25th June 2011 at 6:45pm
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The arrivals of Ashley Young and Phil Jones so far this summer have proved that United are willing to spend big to retain their Premiership crown next season and secure title number 20.

While they undoubtedly want to win more titles next year, the signings at Old Trafford this summer bode well for the future, to put United in good stead when Sir Alex Ferguson leaves the club.

Is that what Fergie is doing then this summer then – focusing on the next generation of United’s team and cementing his legacy so the team can continue to perform at such a high level when he retires?

Last season Ferguson finally achieved his ultimate goal by beating Liverpool’s record of 18 league titles, winning United’s 19th league title and the 12th Premiership title of his illustrious reign. But Ferguson will be 70 in December, and realistically he won’t be around forever.

With Ferguson gone, there is a chance that United could struggle without him, Sir Alex is the best and most successful manager in the world – and any manager would struggle to even try and emulate his success at Old Trafford.

But by signing young players with high potential, Ferguson is giving United a solid core of young talent to build around in the future. With Paul Scholes’ and Gary Neville’s retirement the “old guard” and the legendary class of 1992 are all but gone. Ryan Giggs is the only remnant of that great batch so Ferguson is now signing players and blooding in talent that will form that next great dynasty for the club.

That’s what United’s policy of signing young players under 25 is all about. Players that can come in, develop and contribute for years. If they don’t make the grade, they at least have a high re-sale value, so United don’t lose out financially.

If you look at United’s most recent signings, it points to Fergie building a legacy at the club, so they have a good side when he steps down. The vast majority –Nani, Valencia, Smalling, Chicarito, Ronaldo, Rooney, Carrick, Hargreaves, Anderson, Evra, Vidic – all were 25 or younger when they signed for United and yet to reach their peak as players. I can only think of a few players over the last few years – Edwin Van der Sar, Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen – that were the exception to the rule.

The arrivals of Ashley Young and Phil Jones are just continuing this trend. Young is 25 and Jones is 19; both players haven’t reached their peak yet and have great potential to be a big part of United’s plans for the next few years.

They will help establish a legacy for Ferguson as creates a solid core of young, exciting talent for his successor. United have a host of players are all still 25 or younger; Rooney, Valencia, Nani, the Da Silva twins and Chris Smalling are all young and will continue to get better.

And with the likes of Ryan Tunnicliffe, Ravel Morrison, Will Keane, Paul Pogba, Kiko Macheda, Danny Wellbeck and Tom Cleverley on the fringes of the first team and ready to contribute next season in some capacity, Ferguson is simply creating a new generation of young players who are familiar with each other, have played together for a while and can excel together, just like the golden generation of Beckham, Scholes, Giggs and the Nevilles nearly 20 years ago.

And that’s why I ultimately can’t see United signing Wesley Sneidjer this summer. The Dutch playmaker is 27 and is in the prime of his career, and is without doubt a world-class player. While I would love to see Sneidjer in a United shirt, I can’t see Ferguson willing to spend the £40m+ it would take to sign him from Inter Milan, when they would likely not be able to recoup that money in a few years time.

Obviously, there are exceptions (Berbatov being the main example), but a new keeper is a more pressing and important matter this summer (even in that case we are looking at youth in Spain’s David De Gea).

It would be more likely for United to give Anderson or someone a bigger chance to fill the void left by Scholes, or promote a player from the reserves to come in and contribute next season.

What do you think? Is Sir Alex building his final dynasty?

Follow Tom Jinks on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tomjinks

 

10 responses to “Does United’s transfer policy signify future intentions?”

  1. JB says:

    This ” with the likes of Ryan Tunnicliffe, Ravel Morrison, Will Keane, Paul Pogba, Tom Cleverley, Kiko Macheda, Danny Wellbeck and Tom Cleverley on the fringes of the first team” Cleverley x2? and ” The Dutch playmaker is 28″ no. he’s 27. A decent article. The Manager has always generally targeted young players so there’s nothing really new so far this summer. The Young signing i’m not that sure of at this time but I hope he proves to be a quality addition for us. I agree with you on Sneijder I also don’t think we will sign him, I also don’t see us signing Modric either or any other big name midfielder. I’m sure the Manager has got someone in mind but who it is is anyone’s guess. I think the young players coming through are not quite ready for the first team just yet but should hopefully get a few cup games in the near future.

  2. toshe says:

    i wonder when we speak about new midfilder i hear only sneijder,snejjder sneijder,as there are no other young prospects in world football,

  3. JMR says:

    We need another winger. Giggs is too slow now and Park has never had the pace to frighten defenders. Does anyone actually think that Chelsea, City defenders are scared of most of our players?
    No.
    We need the young U-21 Swiss winger

    • Chudi says:

      Young?

    • jose says:

      Chelsea may not fear our players but they beat them 4 times last season, enough said!! We do need depth tho, but the wing wasn’t the most urgent position. CMF is by far the place needing recruitments. You could take any of the Spanish U21 midfielders all top quality.

  4. Nyamwi says:

    I think he’ll buy javi martinez,THE BEST CHOICE….

  5. Lee says:

    It has all gone very quiet on the Steven Defour front?

  6. James says:

    I think he’ll buy british so my bet is for Lansbury or Cork just a shame they play for our rivals

  7. Abdullah says:

    this will never happen but someone like wilshere would be perfect. Ozil would have been good, and also nuri sahin… But oh well i guess. Anderson hopefully will step up and cleverly aswell

  8. deaz says:

    we love to see bale and rodwell at united, both young and british for the future.