'We're excited' - how Manchester United developed a formidable youth team with three signings

Habeeb Ogunneye, Harry Amass and Ethan Wheatley emerged from the Manchester United dressing room at the same time at Wembley on Sunday. Louis Jackson was a few minutes behind.

Jackson had embarked on a rigorous warm-up in the second half of extra-time after Harry Maguire flagged an issue with the medical staff. Maguire soldiered on and Jackson sat back down.

United's spineless collapse against Coventry denied the club what should have been an additional celebration. Had Jackson, Ogunneye, Amass or Wheatley been introduced, they would have become the club's 250th academy graduate to debut for the first team.

Maguire played with an injury, the 32-year-old Casemiro completed the two-hour epic, Scott McTominay limped through the mixed zone and Marcus Rashford was not walking freely. The schoolboys may be needed on a school night against Sheffield United this week.

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If United first-teamers were not dropping like flies, the teenage quartet would be certain starters in the Under-18 Premier League Cup final against Manchester City at Leigh Sports Village on Tuesday evening. If they are at Leigh, the likelihood is they will be in the stands.

"If players are on the bench or playing on Wednesday at the expense of being in our squad on Tuesday, we will take that all day long," the under-18 coach Adam Lawrence says. "That's our job, that's essentially what we're trying to do."

United's Under-18s have won 19 of their 22 league games and only lost once. They have plundered 74 goals and last week clinched the league title with a 2-1 win over Wolves at the Sir Jack Hayward Training