What did Sir Jim Ratcliffe really mean when he said standards were slipping at the Man Utd academy?

Martin Macdonald

• 17 Mar 2026 10:30 CDT
• 3 min read

News

Back in November, Man Utd shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe caused some controversy when he said that the standards at the club's famed academy were slipping.

Over the last century, the Red Devils have been famed for their ability to consistently produce young stars to either make an impact on the first team or be sold for profit.

Since 30 October 1937, when Tom Manley and Jack Wassall featured in an away match at Fulham, Man Utd have always had at least one academy player in their squad for a First Division/Premier League match.

This is the same academy that produced groups like 'The Busby Babes' and 'The Class of 92', though admittedly, the club as a whole has not enjoyed as much success on the pitch as during those respective eras.

It raised some eyebrows when Ratcliffe told The Business podcast “The academy has really slipped at Manchester United. You need the academy to be producing talent all the time.

"It helps you financially. That’s not a light switch. You don’t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time. We just recruited a new academy director.”

Man Utd's head of academy Stephen Thorpe, who joined from Brentford in August of 2025, believes Ratcliffe wasn't necessarily commenting on the level of player in the academy, but rather the infrastructure.

United's Carrington training ground enjoyed a £50 million revamp and most of this went into the first-eam and women's side, leaving the youth facilities behind.

"Ultimately, I think that was based on things like facilities," Thorpe told BBC Sport.

"It's like decorating your home. You do one room and another doesn't feel the same as the rest of the house. You could say the academy building isn't as advanced as where the first team is right now.

"There's a plan in place for us to refurbish, regenerate and do a lot of work around the academy facilities.

"My remit is to help us be the greatest academy in the world and to do it in a way we can be proud of. We've got a conveyor belt of talent that would suggest we are up there with the greatest. I want to make sure we can all say that we feel we're really challenging for that status."

United don't want to create 'robots'

As with any aspect of life, the culture of Manchester United and the academy has changed since, say, the days of Sir Alex Ferguson, who famously shielded younger players from the media when they were coming into the first team.

Now, all young starlets are plastered over social media, even the very young players.

While Thorpe is keen to protect these youngsters, he insists that United don't want to create robotic personalities within the academy.

"It's not for us to create robots," he said. "It's for us to allow individuals to flourish and therefore express themselves in a way they want. We've got to look at players as humans, not just a cohort or an age group.

"As much as it's our job to protect these young people, we've got to find the line where we don't become parents. Our duty is to support parents where they need it.

"As they progress through the club, it becomes a bit different because they're professional players and then they're coming to work for a living but I see things happening for eight and nine year olds now, where it's almost like if he doesn't have an Instagram account, he's no good, and if he doesn't put a baller or flames emoji, he's obviously not a talented seven year old.

"We can see through that because we don't know at that point. We might be impressed by little moments of magic but there's a long way to go. It's unnecessary pressure in my opinion."

The FootballTransfers app

Check out FootballTransfers' new app for all of football's big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.

The FootballTransfers app is available in the Apple App Store.

Download here:

=•App Store