Manchester United’s Academy Director Brian McClair has defended the sale of Danny Welbeck to Arsenal and believes that more young players will emerge from the academy with Dutchman Louis van Gaal at the helm now.

McClair has praised Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal for bringing a number of youth team players into the club's first team this season and insists he has no qualms about the Dutchman's decision to sell Danny Welbeck.

Van Gaal is a master of player development and fearless in his promotion of talented youth. Historically, this is the United way. Van Gaal is a manager who puts down foundations. In his time at Bayern they won a league title and reached a Champions League final, but just as significantly Van Gaal installed some key components of their subsequent successes. He signed fellow Dutchman Arjen Robben, converted Bastian Schweinsteiger into a central midfielder and helped ease David Alaba, Thomas Müller, Holger Badstuber, Toni Kroos and Mats Hummels into the first team. At Ajax, he revamped the academy and helped a generation of players to bloom. At Barcelona, he gave Andrés Iniesta, Xavi and Carles Puyol a concerted start.

Young players at United, the likes of James Wilson given his first-team debut by Ryan Giggs in his penultimate game in temporary charge of United, can expect to be given a chance by van Gaal, who has put his faith in emerging stars wherever he has worked. Van Gaal's 1995 Champions League-winning Ajax side was made up of home-grown talents and included young Dutch stars of the future such as Edwin van der Sar, Michael Reiziger, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, the De Boer brothers and match-winner Patrick Kuivert, then 18, all of whom went on to become legends of European football.

Welbeck was sold to Arsenal on transfer deadline day for £16m, but the former Dutch national coach has given seven of United's academy players their debut this season. McClair, says that van Gaal has shown his commitment to youth despite offloading Welbeck.

He said: “I don’t feel sorry. People remember Danny running into the gym as a six or seven-year-old at the old Cliff and thinking there was something about him.

“He was a happy lad. He was enthusiastic and he was quick. He’s come through the process. Factors have decided that he’s no longer here, but we’re still proud of him even though he wears a different red shirt.”

According to Manchester Evening News, McClair says Van Gaal is staying true to club traditions by drafting in a number of youth talents - with Tyler Blackett and Paddy McNair excelling since the start of the season.

He continued: “What has pleased me about Louis is he’s given seven young kids their debuts this year, which falls into line with the history of our club.

"I think it’s changed in that Adnan Januzaj would be looked on as a local boy, even though we brought him into the country at 16. We look at him with the same pride as we would a Danny Welbeck.

“We’re looking for good players, wherever we can.

“The manager has been concentrating his efforts on the first-team squad. For various different reasons, he’s gone through various different changes.

“He’s already used more (youth) players, because of circumstances, than we did last season, so he’s got plenty to keep himself busy. I think it’s great for the players involved. They have acquitted themselves very well. It’s a credit to them and the efforts they’ve put in over a number of years.”

19-year-old Northern Irishman McNair was singled out for individual praise by the former United striker, who even revealed that the recent debutant was only converted into a defender to give him more time to physically develop.

McClair continued: “Paddy is only a centre-half because we wanted to give him more time to mature physically, when he actually came as a midfield player.

“One of the things you can see is his technical ability on the ball and his passing and that’s because he’s only been playing as a defender because we thought it was beneficial to his development. It’s great to see he’s played a couple of games in that role but he’s always been a midfield player.

“Modern footballers should have not only the technical ability, but also the confidence to perform in various roles.”

Source: DSG

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