Manchester United’s £50m training ground revamp leaves young talent on the periphery | OneFootball

Manchester United’s £50m redevelopment of Carrington has transformed the first-team’s environment into a state-of-the-art football hub, but at a cost to the club’s rising stars. As reported by The Athletic, the men’s senior squad now enjoy upgraded facilities featuring advanced technology, open-plan spaces, and even a bespoke barber shop. Yet for the club’s under-21 and under-18 teams, the reality is far less glamorous.

Both academy sides have effectively been displaced, with temporary accommodation in modular buildings once used by United’s women’s team. The new first-team design excluded dedicated spaces for academy players, a deliberate move intended to make access to those facilities something to “aspire” to. But the decision has left United’s young hopefuls without a permanent home, forced into smaller, borrowed changing rooms and shuttling their belongings between age-group facilities not designed for players at their level.

Despite these upheavals, results have been impressive. Darren Fletcher’s U18s and Travis Binnion’s U21s top their respective divisions. Still, the lack of adequate infrastructure, coupled with wider concerns about maintenance standards, from uncleaned facilities to missing kit, has prompted unease about the direction of youth development under Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s cost-cutting regime.

Plans are now underway for a new, purpose-built academy complex of equal calibre to the first-team setup. Yet with funding tight and design discussions only just beginning under new academy director Stephen Torpey, it may be years before United’s next generation can truly call Carrington home.

GFN | Finn Entwistle