{"id":551910,"date":"2026-04-26T16:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/551910\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T16:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T16:26:10","slug":"manchester-united-u21s-vs-sunderland-highlights-and-reaction-from-premier-league-2-last-16-play-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/551910\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United U21s vs Sunderland highlights and reaction from Premier League 2 last-16 play off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">When Sir Jim Ratcliffe singled out the United academy as having &#8220;slipped&#8221; with some of his customary direct feedback in October, he highlighted the appointment of Stephen Torpey as evidence of change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Torpey is the latest Old Trafford recruit from the Manchester City blueprint Ratcliffe so admires, and that introduction from the United co-owner was pretty clear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cThe academy has really slipped at Manchester United,&#8221; Ratcliffe said. &#8220;You need the academy to be producing talent all the time. It helps you financially. That\u2019s not a light switch. You don\u2019t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">United&#8217;s first team will play just 40 games this season. An unusually sparse schedule at first team level has led to heightened interest in the club&#8217;s academy, as has the emergence of young talents like JJ Gabriel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Torpey wants to develop some of the country&#8217;s best young players at Carrington. Gabriel, who has scored 23 goals in 25 appearances for the U18s this season, fits that billing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/sport\/football\/man-uniteds-new-academy-chief-33601420\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Read the interview here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_GettyImages-2237149480-3.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Sir Jim Ratcliffe singled out the United academy as having &#8220;slipped&#8221; with some of his customary direct&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,3213,1441,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-551910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-manchester-united-academy","tag-manchester-united-fc","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}