They are Manchester United’s Lost Boys, victims of the meat grinder of English football’s most wasteful club, flushed down a seething well of talent. Each received excitable advanced notices and premature hero worship, only to be dragged into the black hole that is Old Trafford in the lost decade since Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down. Any nascent talent now joins the club at the peril of being damned by United; there are many warnings from recent history to abide by.
Ferguson’s United was the club where youth flourished and attacking talent was given freedom of expression and ammunition to thrive. The club’s prime youth products of the past decade are Marcus Rashford, whose current form is being lamented, and Scott McTominay, who United were willing to sell this summer. United always spent big but perhaps only Bruno Fernandes, himself still a divisive figure, could be said to have joined the club and fully enhanced his reputation.
