Sir Jim’s Class of ’24? Manchester United’s electrifying under-18s cannot be stopped

Hyping up Manchester United youth prospects has become such a parody that when they’re actually performing well, nobody takes notice. But the game has changed once again.

All eyes are on a potential revolution on the red side of Manchester following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s minority takeover of the club, which includes control over the football operations.

While Erik ten Hag’s side continue to stop and start on the pitch, that revolution is quietly bubbling away in the background.

If you’re on social media in any form, you’d know thanks to the insane era of celebrating the appointments of executives and personnel in office roles like they’re record transfers.

Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund are doing their best to quell the chaos, but between the board room reshuffling, Ten Hag’s injury crisis and the hundreds of bizarre Old Trafford rebuild renders on Twitter, the club is somewhat of a rollercoaster.

Apart from at under-18 level, where things are – quietly – going smoother than ever and where that revolution we discussed is just beginning to boil over.

The young Red Devils have put together an outstanding campaign so far, winning 14 league games out of a possible 14 at the time of writing.

It’s unheard-of stuff, really. The kind of run both United’s men’s and women’s first teams are quite literally begging for right now, the kids are making it look easy and giving off a serious ‘Class of ’92’ vibe as an entire unit.

Credit can and should be dished out to several names. Director of Academy Nick Cox, who oversees the youth setup; Adam Lawrence who took charge of the 18s this season after making the step up from U13-16s; the Class of ’92 for creating an endless vacuum of pressure and subsequent ‘we are Man