Chris Dunlavy
A FRESH TAKE ON FOOTBALL
ALAN Hansen has never been allowed to forget his declaration that Manchester United wouldn’t win anything with kids.
Yet the team that won a Premier League and FA Cup double nine months later was not quite as youthful as the legend portrays.
Nicky Butt, David Beckham and the Neville brothers – Gary and Phil - were kids, alright. But the rest? Eric Cantona was a year away from retirement. Skipper Steve Bruce, a veteran of 800 matches, pushing 36.
Denis Irwin was 30, Peter Schmiechel 32 and Gary Pallister 31. Andy Cole and Roy Keane were both 24. Ryan Giggs, though only 22, had clocked up 200 appearances.
In fact, the mean age of United’s average starting XI in that 1995-96 campaign - 26.2 years - was exactly the same as it is this season. While Bruno Fernandes may resemble a stroppy toddler at times, nobody considers that team particularly young.
The point is, Hansen wasn’t wrong - just clumsy in his choice of phrase. What he should have said was that you’ll never win anything without experience.
As Sunderland survey the wreckage of a season fast disappearing into a black hole, it is a lesson their youth-obsessed owner must heed.
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has repeatedly insisted that he wants Sunderland to be a breeding ground for Europe’s best young talent. Buy low, sell high, rinse and repeat.
The 27-year-old, an avid player of Football Manager, is known to be fascinated by the rise of Jude Bellingham which was, in large part, why he hired Birmingham’s entire academy set-up to run the club and then signed his younger brother, Jobe.
Window after window they have hoarded unknown teenagers, often from overseas. Jewison Bennette (Costa Rica). Eliezer Mayenda (Spain). Luis Semedo (Portugal). Solid prospects, but nowhere near ready.
Successive managers - from Alex Neil and Tony Mowbray to Michael Beale - have begged sporting director Kristjaan Speakman to furnish their squads with players who know their way around the Championship.
Support
“We need some support,” said Mowbray in January 2023. “We had a 15-yearold on the pitch today and the other three lads that didn’t get on the pitch were 16 or 17. They need help.” Sunderland subsequently signed Joe Anderson, a 21-yearold central defender from Everton without a single professional appearance to his name. He played four times, and is now on loan at Shrewsbury.
Such pleas have consistently fallen on deaf ears.
This season, Sunderland are responsible for 28 of the 30 youngest starting lineups in the Championship. At 22.4,
