Our great manager was at Old Trafford early one January morning to attend the Academy’s annual Celebration Event. Ahead of the release of 'Lifeblood: United at Heart', which follows Sir Alex Ferguson on that special day, here's the inside story to whet your appetite...
It was, says Sir Alex Ferguson, “easy”
deciding what to do at Manchester United when he arrived as manager in 1986.
“All I had to go back to was the 1950s and Sir Matt Busby, producing fantastic players and teams,” he tells an audience inside the Manchester Suite. This is no after-dinner speech nor a media interview. He’s addressing more than 150 current Academy players, and their parents.
“That was the motivation, for me to carry on what Sir Matt did. He made this club — there’s absolutely no question about that. I just followed on. And it was a joy, to see young players coming through like they did.”
It was, 89 of them in total — “Why not 90?” Sir Alex jests — supplemented by the regular signings of the great talents of world football initially moulded at other clubs, none more famous than the 2008 UEFA Champions League-winning forward pairing of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. The latter — who remains United’s all-time leading goalscorer — is in the room. He’s not a guest of honour, as he was last year, but simply a parent, sat on a table with other parents, and his wife Colleen, enjoying one of the landmark dates in the Academy calendar.
At a club and an institution where some traditions stretch back nearly a century, this is a new one. The Celebration Event started two years ago and Academy staff believe it’s the only of its kind in England. The achievements celebrated are not only those on the pitch, although there are some such clips, and the three Under-18s trophies on stage are a nod to the continuing success at Carrington. The focus is wider than that, with acknowledgement of success in other sports and education, as well as those who have given back to their communities, or shown personal growth.
It is these awards — named ‘United At Heart’ — which Sir Alex hands out on stage midway through the Celebration Event, with that classic old heart-warming phrase of his: “Well done, son.”
United fans need not to be told about the significance of this man, but a dozen years after his retirement, his impact endures on a new generation. “I want to cry,” says the mother of one youngster who received an award from Sir Alex. And the tears gather in her eyes as she’s shown a photo of her son with United’s great leader.
And it is leadership which is a constant theme during this Saturday morning. The CEO of the Manchester United Foundation is in attendance, to thank the players for committing their time to charity projects and to remind them of the importance of doing so. But also, as a long-time friend of the late Sir Bobby Charlton, John Shiels OBE is well-placed to talk on the values instilled by United’s Academy.
“As well as being a football academy, I actually think this is a leadership academy,” he says.
“It’s amazing when I look out here and I see so much talent. It’s talent that’s been matched with opportunity. That’s what both the Foundation and the Academy try to do together, to help the young leaders in front of us develop themselves to be young men and women, and then grow.”
That’s the fundamental philosophy of United’s modern Academy. The belief is that a focus on individuals will bring a by-product of first-team debuts, and the evidence is pretty strong. As one representative of the Premier League attending remarks, it could feel wrong to celebrate off-the-pitch achievements at a football academy if its graduates were not going on to play senior football there. But that isn’t the case at United. Ethan Wheatley became our 250th graduate last April. He was one of three to debut in 2024, who are all celebrated in this ceremony, the other two being Toby Collyer — now getting regular minutes — and Omari Forson, who left last summer to join AC Monza.
Leaving United doesn’t mean severance of the connection. Many in attendance could attest to that. Two were receiving awards, but others like Tom Thorpe, Devonte Redmond, Febian Brandy and Fraizer Campbell were not. They were there because they’d been invited and because they wanted to be. Conversation between them and Sir Alex sometimes goes to other Academy alumni achieving success elsewhere, whether as managers in the Football League, property developers somewhere in England or something more unusual.
Phil Mulryne is the unusual — orthodox perhaps in his beliefs, but not in his career path. As recipient of the Dave Bushell Award for Lifelong Learning, Mulryne is at Old Trafford for just the second time in 20 years.
“He was a wonderful winger,”
recalls Bushell, who is given an award himself, for 30 years of service at United.
“Phil used to turn people inside out.”
He used to turn people inside out, now he turns people into believers.
Mulryne made five appearances under Sir Alex at United in the late 1990s. He left in ‘99 and became a regular starter and fan favourite at Norwich City, helping them secure Premier League promotion. After retirement, he began studying for the priesthood. He was ordained in 2017, two decades after his United debut. He now lives in a monastery.
“I get asked a lot is ‘are there any similarities between being a footballer and a priest?’” Mulryne says.
“And I live in a monastery now, so I’m more of a monk, really. But there is. A lot of the qualities that Sir Alex was saying there: sacrifice, giving yourself to something greater than you. I live in a community of brothers, there’s 15 of us in the monastery, so the sense of dependency on each other. It’s the things that Manchester United taught me, all these virtues and characteristics that you learn from being here.”
There are no televisions in Mulryne’s monastery. He watches United highlights on one of the two computers. It’s one of the more extraordinary stories, and right to be celebrated. As is that of the Tony Whelan Alumni Award for Achievements in Football, Craig Cathcart. With 75 caps for Northern Ireland, Cathcart modestly admits he had a “decent career”
and puts it down to the Academy.
“I’ve had coaches say it to me down the years,” he says.
“We [Academy alumni] always stand out, just the way we are around the place. Respectful, with a good work ethic.”
Those are the values held dear.
“Work hard. Sacrifice. Practice.”
Those are Sir Alex’s simple but memorable words of wisdom.
“And let me just say this…” he continues.
“The people I want to thank today are the parents, for trusting Manchester United to give your young boys an opportunity at Manchester United. You’ve done very well, thank you very much.”
And suddenly you can imagine him sitting at the kitchen table in those early days in the late 1980s, encouraging a mother to put her faith in United. The impact of that dedication and belief is still inspiring youngsters and their families today. Sir Alex, now 83, seems pretty chuffed with that.
This feature first appeared in our beloved matchday programme, United Review.
HOW TO WATCH LIFEBLOOD: UNITED AT HEART
‘Lifeblood: United At Heart’ is an upcoming short film telling the story the Academy and Sir Alex Ferguson in 2025. What do the current generation of young Reds really know about our great manager who retired before some of them were even born? How does Sir Alex’s legacy still live on in the corridors of Carrington, and how will one young player react when they get the chance to be the boss’s chaperone for the day at Old Trafford? That’s all in the latest release in MUTV’s popular Lifeblood series, available to watch to MUTV subscribers from 19:00 GMT on Thursday 13 February.