Former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel believes the club can "reset" following the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe recently purchased 25% of shares in the club and was in the stands at Old Trafford on Sunday to watch his first match since the deal was completed.
Erik ten Hag's side were twice pegged back after taking the lead in the 2-2 draw against Tottenham.
"It’s not good enough but what it is is an opportunity to, in a way, kind of restart," Schmeichel told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"We’ve now had Sir Jim Ratcliffe come in and, if it rectifies [the club's issues] - owning 25% and taking care of football business - that’s one opportunity."
The legendary United stopper added that, with young players such as Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund and Kobbie Mainoo gaining experience in the first team, the club already has the ingredients needed to build a successful team in the long-term.
"I’m convinced we have the players that can create the next generation of a very dominant Manchester United team," he said.
"Over the course of the last two months, we’ve seen some really promising young players, Kobbie Mainoo for instance, enter into the team, so when you look into the team or the players available now, you’ve got some very exciting players. Also, Garnacho is only 20, Hojlund is only 20, you’ve got Pellistri there, you’ve got a crop of young players that are promising a lot for the future.
This is an opportunity. When it’s not going in the direction that you were hoping for this season, it is an opportunity to build a team that will do that in the future. Will the leadership go for that? I really, really hope that they are going to look at these players and think "so here is something that in a couple of years can be competitive".
Over the last 11 years, we’ve tried to buy the big players, tried to spend the big money. We now have a lot of players you can build on and hopefully, in the next couple of months and years, that becomes an investment in the future and not trying to blindly chase that top four position."
Schmeichel on United youth/rebuild
posted on 15/1/24
Promoting and building around youth aren’t the same. You took issue with the claim that successful teams don’t do it. Then provided examples of teams that didn’t do it.
posted on 15/1/24
"Building around" is quite imprecise as a term and I suspect the argument above is about posters having different understandings of what it means (and whether we're talking about youngsters or homegrown, in the sense that Evans is also homegrown) rather than different opinions about how we should use young players.
For me, it's important that our team has a strong connection with the academy. That doesn't mean we should have a rigid rule that we always play an arbitrary number of academy players in the starting XI, or that we promote a certain number to the senior squad each year. But for me it means I feel like we've failed if we don't have homegrown players in the squad, if we aren't producing top quality youngsters and don't have a pathway to the senior team. In an ideal world, I'd like to have at least a couple of squad players and a couple of key players who have come from the academy at any given time. This is good for the culture of the club, the connection between the team and the support, and of course good for the finances, as you're covering fewer squad places with large investment.
posted on 15/1/24
comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 20 minutes ago
Did Amad play much on the right for Sunderland? Never watched them but I thought he was playing through the middle predominantly. Aren’t we going to loan Pellistri to PSV?
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He sometimes played on the right, sometimes centrally, but either way tended to drift into pockets of space in between.
posted on 15/1/24
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 9 minutes ago
comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 20 minutes ago
Did Amad play much on the right for Sunderland? Never watched them but I thought he was playing through the middle predominantly. Aren’t we going to loan Pellistri to PSV?
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He sometimes played on the right, sometimes centrally, but either way tended to drift into pockets of space in between.
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Yea. Think A right sided Bruno position wise free to drift in and out, legit6run at players, draw teams about. He was given a lot of freedom by the manager because he had shown them his abilities being the core if an attack. Hes a fine player. Would probably make a better sub for Bruno (if he had a lot of defensive protection).
Alas we have a system I think will never work for him.
posted on 15/1/24
comment by Kobbie The King Mainoo (U10026)
posted 2 hours, 48 minutes ago
Promoting and building around youth aren’t the same. You took issue with the claim that successful teams don’t do it. Then provided examples of teams that didn’t do it.
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Yeh you're right. Barca, United, Bayern and Ajax don't build around youth. Crack on.
posted on 15/1/24
You could probably add Dortmund to that list as well. They have had to build on their young players because they lose the once they become stars.
posted on 15/1/24
comment by Vidicschin (U3584)
posted 7 minutes ago
You could probably add Dortmund to that list as well. They have had to build on their young players because they lose the once they become stars.
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Sporting Lisbon as well.
posted on 15/1/24
They aren’t successful clubs.
posted on 15/1/24
comment by Kobbie The King Mainoo (U10026)
posted 2 minutes ago
They aren’t successful clubs.
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OK
posted on 15/1/24
comment by Kobbie The King Mainoo (U10026)
posted 22 minutes ago
They aren’t successful clubs.
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Jesus wept.