Inside the Academy Nick Cox column reflecting on Manchester United departure September 2025
We have also seen numerous staff succeed after dedicating themselves to help our players improve during their time at United. Kieran McKenna (Ipswich Town), Justin Cochrane (Spurs and England), Dave Hughes (Newport County), Paul McShane (Huddersfield), Tom Huddlestone (Birmingham City) are just some of the coaches now working with first-team environments. There are so many more dedicated professionals making a real impact in roles across the game.
At every level of English and European football, there are talented players and staff who started their careers in our Academy, and many others who have left football but still draw on valuable life lessons from Carrington.
I will always remember watching Joe, one of our U13s at the time, read a poem he’d written himself in front of 2,000 people at a memorial service at the site of the Munich Air Disaster. It took spirit and bravery for him to stand there and represent the badge so well – as impressive in its own way as any individual achievement on the pitch.
In a similar category, a young lad who suffered a devastating family tragedy turned up to training the day after. I remember, alongside the grief for him, a sense of satisfaction that this club was his safe place — the place that, in his moment of need, he wanted to hang out, because he could be himself, be normal and escape the challenges he’d faced. That’s the result of a fantastic group of staff who will continue to do that work. They help the players, and they help each other. I know that because when I lost my Dad last year, this place became an extended family that looked after me.
