• Academy director role may be split between coaching and strategy • Stadium for under-21s may be built at Carrington along the lines of City’s setup

Manchester United are conducting a root-and-branch review of their academy and considering building a stadium for the junior teams. There is an expectation that the 10-month search to replace Brian McClair as director will end in the role being split, with one position overseeing coaching and the other strategy.

There are also discussions over whether United’s recruitment system can be upgraded, one option being the employment of full-time rather than part-time scouts.

United are intent on retaining the core identity of the academy, which continues to produce players for the first team. It has a proud record of having at least one homegrown footballer in the first-team matchday squad since 30 October 1937, a run of 3,770 games.

The club have won a record 10 FA Youth Cups, the last coming in 2011, and are the current Professional Development League Under-21 champions, having won the competition twice in its three years of existence. Some of the domestic game’s finest footballers have been developed by United, including Duncan Edwards, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. In all, nine players reared at the club are in the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame, the most of any club.

Yet there is a recognition that it cannot be complacent and it has been noted at Old Trafford how serious Manchester City are about developing their own talent.

City’s ambition is to produce two or three players ready for the first-team squad each season. Two years ago the Etihad club’s under-21s were the first winners of the Premier League Cup, and in September United lost 9-0 to City at under-14 level. The former United players Robin van Persie, Andy Cole, Darren Fletcher and Phil Neville have sent their sons to City rather than United.

City’s £200m academy celebrated its first anniversary last week. It is a facility that rivals St George’s, the Football Association’s centre in Burton, in scale and attention to detail, and at its heart is a 7,000-seat stadium.

United are deliberating over whether to build their own ground so that the academy can be housed at their training complex in Carrington.

Currently, the under-21 side play at grounds in the area. Monday evening’s 6-1 defeat of Leicester City in the Premier League was staged at the 12,000-capacity stadium at Leigh Sports Centre. The team have also played over recent seasons at Altrincham’s Moss Lane, the AJ Bell Stadium, home of the Salford Red Devils rugby league side, Northwich Victoria’s Victoria Stadium, and Hyde United’s Ewen Fields.

McClair left his position in February to become the Scottish FA’s national performance director and the lack of replacement nearly a year later is down to the ongoing internal review.

United are intent on dividing the position. The aim is to appoint a director of coaching and a person charged with overseeing strategy, whose remit would include data analysis and administration. The pair would work in tandem.