The Independent:
Once Ryan Giggs had jogged painfully from the Old Trafford pitch last Tuesday, having sustained a fractured cheekbone towards the end of a hugely disappointing goalless draw against Lille, it became apparent that there was something unfamiliar about the Manchester United team left out there: with Paul Scholes having preceded Giggs down the tunnel after receiving one of the occasional red cards that his wild tackling inevitably brings about, not a single one of the generation of early-Nineties golden boys was on the field.
It is a sight to which United followers will increasingly have to grow accustomed. David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Phil Neville have all moved clubs (a little ironically in the case of the latter pair, given the sudden need for a proper defensive midfield player). Giggs is no longer a regular, especially when Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney are fit; Gary Neville's injury means another of the old gang is currently missing.
The Beckham Boys won the FA Youth Cup in 1992, a feat emulated three seasons ago by another generation slowly making their mark, of whom Kieran Richardson and Phil Bardsley have progressed furthest. United, with their proud tradition of junior development since the days of the Busby Babes - the club won the first five Youth Cups, from 1953-57 - will continue to encourage young local talent, but cannot afford to be sentimental about it.
These days the net has to be spread as wide as regulations allow, so that the current list of bright young things includes names as exotic as Gerard Pique (from Barcelona), Giuseppe Rossi (an Italian-American) and Dong Fangzhou (Chinese). That is the sort of pressure facing genuine Lancashire lads like Bardsley, the promising 20-year-old right-back whose local roots and lifelong United allegiance ought ideally to count for something when a long-term replacement is sought for that equally committed Red, Gary Neville.
All Bardsley can do for now is keep producing performances as impressive as those against Benfica and Lille, in Champions' League ties that account for exactly half his total number of starts in the first team.
"You get more confident with each game you play," he said after the Lille match, in which by common consent he was as good as any of United's much more experienced performers. "I'm learning and getting fitter, and hopefully I can maintain that."
Bardsley, quoted in the Mirror:
"It is nice to be seen as a new generation.
"There are some good young players coming through like Giuseppe Rossi, Sylvain Ebanks-Blake, Lee Martin, they roll off your tongue really."