United Youth Review of 2009: Part One

With another eventful and successful calendar year for United’s reserve and academy teams drawing to a close, it’s time for the almost-inevitable 2009 retrospective. We start today with January through til March, covering some surprise transfer activity, one of the greatest reserve games of recent times and Wembley glory for some of Fergie’s latest batch of fledglings.

Next up in the Youth Cup… Burnley

Having dispatched Birmingham City in a tough Third Round encounter, United have been drawn away to Burnley in round four of this year’s FA Youth Cup.

Reserves: Bolton 2 United 2 (Bolton win 3-2 on pens) – Reds endure more penalty pain in the MSC

December 14th 2009, 7pm
County Ground, Leyland

	-
Bolton Wanderers Reserves	2-2	Manchester United Reserves

Mooy 12	-	Pogba 11
Obadeyi 50	-	Ajose 54

 
BOLTON WANDERERS WIN 3-2 ON PENALTIES

Sheridan MISSED	-	Hewson SCORED
Blakeman MISSED	-	Norwood SCORED
Harsanyi SCORED	-	Tunnicliffe MISSED
Eckersley SCORED	-	Pogba MISSED
Mooy SCORED	-	Stewart MISSED

 
 
Deja vu was the order of the day at the County Ground in Leyland as, for the second season running, United’s reserves lost a Manchester Senior Cup tie to Bolton Wanderers after a dramatic penalty shootout.

A youthful United second string took an early lead through debutant Paul Pogba, only for Aaron Mooy to immediately level for the hosts. In a hectic second half that sequence was reversed, with Temitope Obadeyi putting Bolton 2-1 up for all of four minutes before Nicky Ajose’s sweetly-struck response. In truth the Reds were somewhat fortunate to take the game to penalties after Wanderers dominated the second 45 minutes, but once the shootout was underway, and the home side had missed their first two penalties, it looked for all the world that Ole Solskjaer’s side would prevail. Bolton keeper Robert Lainton had other ideas however, saving superbly from Ryan Tunnicliffe, Pogba and Cameron Stewart to engineer a remarkable turnaround and inflict more shootout misery on United’s reserves, who have now lost four of them in the last 13 months.

New deal for Danny

Hot on the heels of tieing down Federico Macheda to a new long-term contract last week, United have handed fellow teen striker Danny Welbeck a new deal committing him to the club until the summer of 2013.

Youth Cup: United 2 Birmingham 0 – Reds edge past battling Blues

December 10th 2009, 7pm
Moss Lane, Altrincham

	-
Manchester United U18s	2-0	Birmingham City U18s

Pogba 1	-	-
Ajose 30	-	-

 
 
It wasn’t particularly convincing, it certainly wasn’t all that pretty but ultimately, a hard-fought 2-0 win over Birmingham City was enough to send United’s academy side through to Round Four of this year’s FA Youth Cup.

Things couldn’t have started better for Paul McGuinness’ side, who were ahead before the clock had even reached the sixty-second mark thanks to some slack marking from the visitors and a smart header from Paul Pogba. United struggled to build on that early advantage however and the Blues gave as good as they got, maybe even having the better of the first-half and likely feeling more than a little unfortunate to go in two behind at the break after Nicky Ajose doubled the Reds’ lead on the half-hour mark.

With Birmingham still very much in the game, a pivotal moment came eight minutes into the second half as the Blues were awarded something of a soft penalty, only for striker Jake Jervis to see his penalty brilliantly saved by Conor Devlin. A goal there and it could have been a very different game but that miss seemed to drain the visitors’ belief, and the Reds saw out the rest of a tricky tie in relative comfort to ensure their name would be in the hat for tomorrow’s fourth round draw.

U18s: United 2 West Brom 1 – Pogba piledriver inspires Reds victory

December 5th 2009, 11am
Trafford Training Centre, Carrington

	-
Manchester United U18s	2-1	West Bromwich Albion U18s

Pogba 5	-	Thorne 89
Tunnicliffe 24	-	-

 
 
United’s U18 side concluded academy league activity for 2009 in much the same way as they started it – with a win against their West Bromwich Albion counterparts at a chilly Carrington.

While not quite matching the level of performance shown in January’s Davide Petrucci-inspired 4-1 win over the Baggies, the Reds still raced into an early lead thanks to terrific long range strikes from central midfielders Paul Pogba and Ryan Tunnicliffe inside the first half-hour. George Thorne’s late goal was just reward for a valiant second-half effort by the visitors and ensured a nervy last few minutes for the hosts, but Paul McGuinness’ side held on to take all three points and head into Thursday’s Youth Cup clash with Birmingham – and the ensuing Christmas break – in fine form and high spirits.

The saga rumbles on: Phelan – “Work permit issues scuppered Ljajić deal”

Not to drag this sorry saga out any more than is necessary or to labour the point, but Reds assistant boss Mike Phelan has had his say on the subject of Adem Ljajić’s collapsed move to United and has arguably only further complicated an already confusing situation.

Confirmed: United pull plug on Ljajić deal

I reported last night that several English media sources were reporting that United had backed out of a deal to bring Partizan teenager Adem Ljajić to Old Trafford in January, and in a statement on the official website this morning, the club have confirmed that the deal is indeed off.

Kiko commits til 2014

United have confirmed that Federico Macheda has put pen to paper on a new four-year deal that ties the Italian teenager to the club until 2014.

Adem Ljajić – Deal off?

Seemingly out of the blue, reports in the English media this evening have surfaced stating that United’s signing of Serbian teenager Adem Ljajić from Partizan Belgrade – thought to have been a done deal since January – has been cancelled.