When I started playing more regularly in the Manchester United first team in 1991-1992 it took a few seasons for it to dawn on me that, like all teenagers who break through early, I had missed something earlier in my development that I had to go back to a few years later.

I was 17 at the start of that season, having already made my debut the previous March and by the end of that last Football League campaign I had played in 38 league games.

It was 41 games the following year when we won the Premier League and from then on you might think that I never looked back – but that was not the case.

There is one problem with being an early developer in football and that is you miss out on some of the basics that are standard for young players who progress more slowly from youth team sides, to the reserves – as it was in those days – and then gradually into the first team.

We are all keen to see academy lads make it through the ranks now, and rightly so, but we also have to understand the problems they might face even once they make it.