Pep Guardiola could have named a seventh substitute for Manchester City’s away game at Burnley quite easily. After all, City boast one of the deepest pools of players in the Premier League. The club spent £200 million building their academy, with City’s youth teams now considered among the best in all of Europe. Guardiola could have called up a youngster purely to give them the experience of being in a senior matchday squad.
Of course, there was a very deliberate point to Guardiola’s decision to only name six substitutes for the trip to Turf Moor. This was posturing from the Catalan who wanted to prove that City don’t have the options many view them to have. This was either prompted by the reaction to his failed deadline day move for Riyad Mahrez, which was widely derided for being grossly short-sighted, or the injuries suffered by a number of key players over the past few weeks, with Guardiola calling for the implementation of a winter break as a result.
Guardiola’s decision not to turn to Manchester City’s youth academy for a seventh substitute was at odds with his reputation as a coach. At Barcelona, he brought through possibly the greatest homegrown group of players ever seen in football, and so City must have hoped Guardiola would do something similar with their youth academy.
So far, though, Phil Foden is the only one to have broken into the first team reckoning, and he’s only made one substitute appearance in the Premier League. Contrast this with the way Jose Mourinho has bled a number of young players into his first team squad this season and it might be time to reconsider the reputation Guardiola enjoys as a great champion of youth.
On the same day that Guardiola overlooked Manchester City’s youth ranks for their game against Burnley, Jose Mourinho named 21-year-old Scott McTominay in his starting lineup for Manchester United’s clash with Huddersfield Town. It wasn’t that Mourinho was short of options, either, with Paul Pogba benched for the match. McTominay was given his opportunity because Mourinho trusted him.
Mourinho has also brought Angel Gomes through into the Manchester United senior squad, with many expecting the England youth international to be given more chances in the second half of the season. Then there’s Jesse Lingard. At 25, he might not be particularly young, and Mourinho could never claim to have brought the forward through, but Lingard is a homegrown product who has flourished due to the faith placed in him by his manager.
So while Guardiola and Mourinho might have arrived at their respective clubs with contrasting reputations concerning their attitude toward youth, the script has been flipped over the past few weeks and months.
