Created ‘upside down’, Manchester United had a girls section before there was a women’s first team to graduate into. Academy boss Charlotte Healy has set about joining the dots, as Andrew Raeburn finds out...
On February 2nd, 2020, Rebecca May’s brief substitute appearance in a Women’s Super League game at Reading made Manchester United history.
Rebecca May in action on her Manchester United debut
The 18-year-old’s five-minute cameo saw her become the first player to graduate through United’s entire youth system, from under-10s, to the fledgling first team.
It was a proud moment for all who knew the teenager - not least Charlotte Healy, the coach in charge of the club’s academy.
Healy had been brought to United in the summer of 2019 by first-team head coach Casey Stoney, and tasked with building the pathways from the existing youth set-up to the recently created senior team.
May’s introduction in a fixture which was very much live - the score was 1-1 - proved the pathways were working.
Healy said: “There’s a lot of alumni in the first team, but they had come through the Under-10s to Under-16s and then had to go to other clubs [with no senior team at United]. Then when the first-team reformed, they came back.
“Rebecca was the first player to go all the way through the system, including the Under-21s, and make her first-team debut. That was a real proud day for everyone.
“We’ve had two more recently who have gone up and made debuts. In total, seven players from the Under-21s have been involved in a first-team matchday squad over the past 18 months, with six making debuts.
“I think it puts a really good message down the pathway that if you’re good enough, you’ll get the opportunity.”
Healy, who not only oversees the United academy and its pathways but is also manager of the club’s Under-21s, was headhunted for the role by Stoney.
“A big pull was being able to work with Casey, who values developing players”
The pair had first crossed paths at Liverpool, where former England captain Stoney spent the last two years of a decorated playing career that saw her win 130 caps for her country, including appearances at three World Cups and the 2012 Olympics in London.
Healy was assistant coach for Liverpool’s Under-23s during Stoney’s time at the club and the pair shared a passion for player development.
“We were doing our Uefa A licences at the same time,” said Healy. “She was brilliant with the youth players.
“We had a couple of players who were in and around going to the first team, so she was that link. She would come down every week and we were both delivering sessions.”
Going into 2018, Manchester United were an outlier in the female game - a youth set- up without a senior women’s team.
That all changed that summer, when the club was granted a licence to compete in the FA Women’s Championship - England’s second tier - and Stoney was appointed the club’s first-ever head coach.
In her debut season in charge, United gained promotion to the WSL. Stoney then reached out to Healy - who by that stage was leading the Under-23s programme at Manchester City - to ask if she’d take charge of the youth set-up at United.
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Tara Bourne is among Charlotte Healy’s Manchester United academy graduates to have featured in first-team squads during the 2020-21 season
“A big pull for me coming to the club was being able to work with Casey, who I know values developing young players,” said Healy.
“We were born a little bit upside down in the sense that we had a youth section for a long time for players aged 10-16. We then had a first team in 2018 and an under-21s formed in 2019.
“So we’re doing a big piece of work at the minute to align the pathway and look where the big gaps are, because Under-16s to Under-21s is massive and Under-21s to the first team is even bigger.
“We’re trying to make them a little bit smaller and ensure the work we’re doing up and down the pathway is aligned.
“We want to make sure there’s a pathway for young players to come through and have the opportunity to represent the first team.”
Within a year of Healy’s appointment, the pathways began to bear fruit. May’s debut was an important milestone - and the others knocking on the first-team door now have examples to emulate.
“We had a couple last year go on tour with the first team, right at the very start of the season,” said Healy.
“I think it’s really important the girls see there is a first-team head coach who really cares about developing young players and they’ll be given exposure when the time is right.
“But it has to be because they’re ready, and they can physically meet the demands of first-team training and matchday. And then, when the opportunity is right, they’re given minutes on the pitch to go and show what they can do.
“It’s not right for every player within the Under-21s to be exposed to a first team environment because they’re not all ready.
“It’s important we know our players, what their needs are and when they need challenging. We’ve got two girls with the first team at the minute, but they’ve got exams coming up. So we might pull one of them back for a week.”
Just as in the men’s game, there is a distinct difference between standing out in older age groups and being able to cope with the pace, strength and stamina of the fully- professional WSL.
And with Healy’s Under-21s largely made of under-18s, that gap in preparedness is even more pronounced.
She said: “We might have a real diamond come through the ranks, but we need to make sure they’re hitting the benchmarks in terms of physical development.
“Because no matter how good you are with the football, you have to be able to meet the demands of the game if you’re going to go and play for the first team.
“There’s different things that we’re doing with the Under-21s. We’ve played boys’ teams this year, we’ve played other academies and we’ve played Blackburn and Sheffield United, who are Women’s Championship teams.
“It’s about exposing the players to wider experiences then they would get if they were to just play under-21 teams.”
It is incredibly hard to get into academies, with Healy saying she receives hundreds of emails and hours of video footage from prospective players, their parents or others acting on their behalf.
PLAYING AGAINST BOYS: ‘WE MIGHT USE IT FOR SPEED OF PLAY OR DEALING WITH LONG BALLS’
“Lower down the pathway, the Under-10s, Under-11s, Under-12s and Under-13s all play against boys of the same age. The games involving the 10s, 11s and 12s are really competitive. I think at U13s it becomes a bit of a challenge – some of the lads at 13 are fully grown with beards, I think!
“In terms of the Under-21s, and who we play against, we mix it up. There’s a lads team who train at a site near us, and we will play them sometimes on a Saturday morning. They’re the same age as our girls, so it’s a really good, competitive game. They basically play a similar style and obviously quicker than some of the girls teams we play against, so we might use it for speed of play.
“We also play against a couple of lads’ college teams – I remember organising a game against one team, and they came in and you thought ‘wow, they’re huge’. So that’s a really good test because they might just hit the ball long and our girls have to deal with that.
“Or we might play against a team who are a little bit younger, like a boys’ academy team. Even though we’re Under-21s, we’re predominantly Under-18s, so we might play an Under-16s or Under-15s academy team.
“I wouldn’t just pick a boys team out of a hat. We try and make sure we pick the right team that will provide us the challenge that we’re trying to get out of the game.”
‘EVERYTHING IS INDIVIDUALISED. WE MEET EACH MONDAY AND GO THROUGH EVERY PLAYER’
“We pride ourselves on developing individuals. Players have different challenges and different needs at different times, so we treat everybody as an individual.
“The girls fill wellness forms in every day – we know how they’ve slept, if they’re sore, if they’ve got an an injury, if they’re on their period, or it’s the first day of their period and they’re more susceptible to injury. And then our physical performance coach does them all individual gym plans – everything is individualised.
“We make sure things are tracked. We have weekly staff meetings at 9.30am every Monday, and we go through every single player, making sure everyone’s on the same page and knows what the plan is for each player every single week.
“That’s really important because it means we can measure them against themselves, and we’re not comparing one player to another.
“It’s all about saying to a player ‘this is your development plan, these are your challenges, this is how are we going to measure your development over the next six-12 weeks’.
“We’re really conscious to make sure players know their individual targets, that they’re measured individually and recorded individually. It makes them buy into the program more because they know everything they do is specific to them and their development.”
The competition intensifies during the season, particularly when players start seeing the potential pathway to senior football.
“One important thing we do is manage expectations,” Healy said. “We’re really clear from day one – not every player is going to play every single game.
“The second part of it is understanding the demands and the stresses the girls are under. It’s a big jump from Under-16s [to Under-21s].
“They go from predominantly being spoonfed by parents to all of a sudden becoming very independent, and that brings with it different challenges and everything girls go through at that age.
“We’re really lucky to have a wellbeing coach, who Casey brought in predominantly to work with the first team. She does a lot of work with us now around wellbeing, mental health and sports psychology.
“The players have workshops delivered to them and have opportunities for one-to- one meetings with her. We are also able to refer players externally if we feel they need additional support.
“From a coach’s perspective, we do a lot of work around the culture and environment of the team and that everybody has a role to play on matchday, whether you’re in the starting 11 or in the squad as one of the game-changers, as we call them.
“And if you’re not named in the squad, what’s your role? You can’t just sit on the bench and look miserable. You’ve got an important part to play.
“Success for us is players populating the WSL and the Championship”
“No matter how good you are at maths, you’re never going to fit 20 players into 11, so if everybody reacts negatively to not being in that 11, you’ve got 11 happy people and nine negative players, and that’s not a good balance.”
It is, of course, a fact of life that most players in a major academy have to look elsewhere for regular first-team football.
Healy and her staff do not shy away from it. They are up front with the players from the start and consider the academy a finishing school for players who then populate the rosters of other clubs in the WSL, Championship and the third-tier FA Women’s National League.
“We’re really keen on making sure that when you leave, that’s a graduation, it’s not a release,” Healy said.
“We want their time with us to be a positive experience and say Manchester United played a real positive role in their life.
“They might go to a Championship club, they might go to America for four years, they might go to a different first team.
“As an academy, that that’s how we measure success. It’s not going to be just players getting a first-team contract, because ultimately you then fail 95 per cent of the people you work with.
“Success for us is players populating the Women’s Super League and the Championship, achieving their dream job and their dream career.” WSC
“I might get 20 videos of players a day. So, for me, it’s what makes them stand out. What’s the X factor?”
HEAR MORE FROM Charlotte Healy, INCLUDING HOW SHE MIGHT ASSESS A TALENTED GRASSROOTS YOUNGSTER, ON OUR LATEST PODCAST — CLICK HERE
Andrew is a sports journalist with more than 15 years’ experience. Currently freelancing for the likes of BBC Sport, BBC local radio and Amazon Prime Video. He is also working as a sub-editor for a sports start-up. Previously Andrew has worked for Uefa, the Football League, Cardiff City FC, the Olympic Channel, ECB TV, Tennis TV, Metro, West London Sport, WhoScored, Stats Zone, Bleacher Report and Dolby. He also has experience in managing football club communications, with spells at E...
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