Boss Neil Wood made a foresighted remark on the touchline at Doncaster Rovers in September, after Manchester United's Under-23s' 5-0 thrashing in their last pre-season match before the regular season began.
Wood predicted a ‘up-and-down season for the United youth team, which would kick off six days later at Salford City in another tough match.
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Their 6-0 win over the League Two team, coming just days after a thrashing by the League One senior side, proved Wood correct, as did the whole season that followed.
Wood's team won ten games, lost ten, and drew four in their first season back in Premier League 2, the top tier of U23s football, after being relegated. They were the division's second-highest scorers, behind only champions Manchester City, and the division's second-highest conceders, behind only bottom-of-the-table Southampton.
“It's been an up-and-down season,” Wood told reporters at Leigh Sports Village after a 3-1 loss to Derby in their final league game of the season, only days after thrashing the same team 6-2 away from home.
“We've had some pretty nice performances,” Wood adds. I think it's an accomplishment that we remained in the league with such a young side, an accomplishment that we finished as the league's second-highest goal scorers.
“It's also disheartening that we've conceded too much. A lot of that was due to human, inexperienced mistakes, which we have worked hard to correct over the season. Occasionally, a stroke of bad luck has conspired against us.”
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Consistency comes with maturity, and experience is something United has missed in the Under-23s for some time now, on purpose.
Nicky Butt is no longer a United employee, but in his previous capacity as head of football production, he asked for a younger average age in the U23s and U18s in an interview with Man Sport in 2019.
“You can't trap people in their comfort zone for too long,” he said.
Even today, in the United States, children are constantly stretched and forced toward older age classes. Only one player aged 20 or overplayed in the Derby contest, and he is due to quit the team in the summer after his deal expires.
So United were never going to contend for the top spot in the table, at least not this season.
And it's too blunt to call this a "transition year" because Wood and his team realize the conveyor belt would continue to move at this pace. For every Anthony Elanga and Shola Shoretire who have broken into Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first team, there are those who need to quit or go on loan to advance in their careers.
As a consequence, the Under-23s are a ragtag and rarely explosive outfit, but they are still fun to see as they play their version of thrilling front-foot football.
“I suppose the most difficult thing to do in growth is consistency,” Wood says.
“We've played 42 players this season who have been part of this 23s squad. We've managed to stretch people, and we've also moved young people up the age ranges, but it takes time.
"They don't just show up and all happens. They will perform admirably for the U18s, and then this is the next step. At the moment, there is a significant difference between 18s and 23s football.
“Hopefully there would be a learning curve for them, because they will have to adapt fast, and they will be in the world next season, and it will be difficult, like it was for a number of the young players who came through this season.”
Isak Hansen-Aaroen and Charlie McNeill also starred in the season finale against Derby, despite having spent most of their time with the Under-18s this season.
Others, such as Alvaro Fernandez (18), Marc Jurado and Joe Hugill (both 17), have appeared for the 23s at times this season since being discovered and signed by United's youth transfer team in 2020, along with McNeil, Hansen-Aaroen, and others in a massive recruiting campaign.
It's no secret that these young players will be the backbone of the squad next season, just as Shoretire, Elanga, and Hannibal Mejbri were tasked with carrying the torch after the Doncaster game and into 2020/21.
The key goals would be to develop individual talent and to encourage talented players to take on responsibilities. The results can suffer, and another mid-table finish is possible, but Wood is all about the task.
“Next season would be difficult from the start,” he says.
“A limited core community of around ten to twelve men. They'll be strained. McNeill and Isak, for example, may be bent and pulled up.”
And, as at Doncaster, many players can learn valuable lessons along the way.
The most significant win for Wood would be seeing some of his players hand-picked by Solskjaer, with Elanga, Shoretire, and Mejbri all now in that list. Of course, more continuity will be good to go along with the growth and the dazzling offensive football.
“The Doncaster game was the biggest pre-season game where the majority of lads had gone out on loan and it was going to be the key group for the season,” he continues. It was the major challenge, the wake-up call for them on what was to come.
"And for the most part of the season, we've lost against teams who have really come out against us, that have been competitive with us. I believe it has everything to do with being younger and less physically active.”
The strategy can not be changed. But, as with any year of Under-23s football, nearly everything else can shift as the conveyor belt continues to go on.
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