"The academy status is not really good enough for Manchester United in the sense that we don’t really reap anything from it. I think the academy status is starting to decline to the extent that it is worrying. The only thing we can do is look worldwide. That’s why we have built up alliances with other clubs around the world. We have young players from diverse backgrounds, players from all over the world — China, Ghana, Togo, America, and a young boy from Brazil.
"If I go back 18 years, we had two foreign nationals in the team – Jesper Olsen and John Sivebaek. We had Irish, Welsh and Scots of course, but not really any foreign players. Now we have 23 different nationalities here. That’s been one of the biggest changes. It’s phenomenal."