Rochdale’s Ollie Rathbone spent eight years in the Manchester United academy, so he is excited to be going to Old Trafford in the Carabao Cup third round – just not for the reason many might imagine.

“Obviously I still have some friends at United and I am fully aware that it is an incredible venue steeped in history because we used to do lessons on the subject, but the great thing for us is the chance to play on a pristine surface,” the 22-year-old midfielder says. “Quite a lot of the games we play in League One are on shocking pitches, the finances are not the same and it’s difficult to maintain such a high standard. So it will be a treat to play on a perfect surface for a change. We deserve it for all the hard yards we put in throughout the season on very poor pitches.”

Poor pitches or not, Rochdale have managed to score one of the goals of the season with their patient passing game. Rathbone was on the bench at Southend last month when his teammates delivered a passable imitation of peak-Pep Barcelona, and he claims the standard has been just as high in various other games since the arrival of Brian Barry-Murphy as manager. “The first game of the season, at Tranmere, we scored two goals after similar passages of play – it’s not like Roots Hall was a one-off,” he says. “We’ve scored a lot of good goals already. Only that one went viral, but that’s the way the manager wants us to play and we won’t shy away from it at Old Trafford.”

Ed Woodward pledges faith in Ole Gunnar Solskjær at Manchester United Read more

A technical education with Manchester United sets a young player in good stead for a possession‑based game, and though Rathbone has many fond memories of his time at the club where he began as an 11-year-old, he has no regrets about leaving. “I was very lucky to have two great coaches in Warren Joyce and Paul McGuinness, but when the time came to step up from the academy to the reserves I was finding myself on the bench all the time,” he says.

“I only stuck it out for a year because basically I wasn’t getting a sniff. When Louis van Gaal was manager he would drop down Adnan Januzaj and Memphis Depay to play in the reserves and I was always the one to get pushed aside. I talked it over with my dad [former Blackburn defender Mick Rathbone], then had a discussion with Warren and Nicky Butt. They said I could stay if I wished, but admitted they could not see a pathway for me to progress.

“It is hard to motivate yourself to train hard every day when there isn’t any sugar at the end, so I realised I had to make a decision. I thought I would do all right in league football. I can say now it’s been the best thing I have ever done in my life, in my entire career. I’ve made almost 120 appearances since coming to Rochdale and it has developed me as a player and a person.”

The cheerfulness with which Rathbone says this, sitting behind a folding table in an upstairs room at the homely but unprepossessing Rochdale sports and cricket club, suggests he has adjusted well since being slightly overawed by the ethos he was trying to fit into at United.

“When you go into the United reserves you enter the first-team environment,” he says. “You go in the gym and there are pictures of all the legends on the wall, so you are captured in that culture. You realise how many wonderful players were developed at the club, but you also realise very quickly how difficult it is to become a professional footballer, how hard you have to work every single day.

The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email.

“The sessions were relentless, and when I look at Scott McTominay now, still a friend and someone who has had loads of difficulties with injuries but kept coming back for more, I can only admire him for dealing with a massive amount of pressure. Maybe Scotty was surprised when he was given the chance, but I was not surprised he took it so well.”

One United player who did surprise Rathbone was Marcus Rashford, not because he lacked ability but because he was earmarked for great things from an early age and initially it was difficult to work out what all the fuss was about. “Everyone seemed to know Marcus was going to make it, but he was like a baby until he was 15 or 16 and I couldn’t really see it,” Rathbone says.

“I couldn’t believe such a little lad could possibly go up to first-team training and compete with the likes of Rio Ferdinand, but Marcus is tough and determined and in a short space of time he has grown into an incredible footballer and athlete. I know how hard he has worked and the pressure he works under, but I must admit he has handled it all brilliantly.”