It is 86 years now since Manchester United cut a deal with a rugby team named Broughton Rangers to buy the patch of land, known simply as The Cliff, that would go on to produce the best conveyor belt of young talent that English football has ever seen.



The mosaic of Duncan Edwards welcoming modern-day visitors into the main building, behind the faded red of the painted brick walls on Lower Broughton Road, tells only part of the story.



It was here that the Class of ’92 convinced Sir Alex Ferguson, contrary to what might have been heard elsewhere, that you can win something with kids. It was here, on the banks of the River Irwell, where the mentality was forged that means United — and this has to be one of the proudest records in the sport — have gone 3,990 consecutive first-team matches, all the way back to 1937, with an academy graduate in the squad.



It was no wonder Ole Gunnar Solskjaer talked about “the DNA of the club” when he...