Manchester United have, throughout history, seen young players emerge from the academy and go on to have successful careers, both at Old Trafford and elsewhere.
It is a non-negotiable at Manchester United that the academy must be used, with all the success the club had during Sir Alex Ferguson’s time being built on the academy.
There is a proven track record of this being the case, with some of United’s best players being academy graduates, names like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, and David Beckham all coming through the youth set-up.
However, not all talented youngsters at the club can make it at United, instead heading elsewhere for their success. Alejandro Garnacho ditched United for Chelsea in the summer, and there are numerous examples of this happening to the Red Devils.
But for Wayne Rooney, the success of one youngster who left United was a big shock.
Wayne Rooney admits to being shocked by Gerard Piqué’s successful career
At Manchester United in 2008, while Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were the best defensive pairing in world football, there was a defensive prospect named Gerard Pique acting as an understudy.
The Spanish defender ultimately didn’t get the game time to earn himself a permanent role, and United let him leave for £5m. Speaking in the following years, Sir Alex admitted regretting his decision to sell Pique, as the Spanish World Cup winner went on to have a legendary career with Barcelona.
However, speaking on ‘The Wayne Rooney Show’, United’s record goal scorer admitted that he was surprised by the career Pique went on to have, stating that he thought Jonny Evans was a better youngster.
“He was a young guy that Man United obviously, but I think he doesn’t get the respect he deserves.
“He wasn’t the quickest, but again, he positioned himself and put himself in some really good positions to counteract that. His ability with the ball was as good as any defender you’ll ever see in terms of his passing through the lines and starting attacks off, obviously, in a very good team like Barcelona.
“He was a winner. I think he was a great character. He was fun to be around, obviously, when we played with him, his problem at Man United was when he was coming through, he was technically he was he was fantastic, but then the question was, could he cope with it physically?
“That was the question. It was probably a toss of the coin between him and Jonny Evans. And I think at the time we all felt Jonny was the better player and was suited more to the Premier League than Pique would have been.
“And then Gerard played against Bolton away from home and and really struggled which as a young lad to come up against you know that Bolton team Sam Allardyce’s Bolton team was tough and and the man you made decision to keep Jonny and let Pique go back to Barcelona and then from there I don’t think any of us could have imagined the career he could have.”
Pique came back to bite Manchester United twice
The regret that Ferguson had over letting Pique go will only have grown over the years as the Spaniard came back to haunt United not once but twice.
One year after selling Pique back to Barcelona, he was a starring defender as they reached the Champions League final, beating United in the 2009 final 2-0.
If this wasn’t bad enough, Pique also played against United in the 2011 final, which resulted in a 3-1 win for Pep Guardiola’s side.
This justifiably makes Pique a player that United will absolutely regret letting go; however, at the time, there was no way he would have gotten into the team ahead of Vidic or Ferdinand.
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