French midfielder Paul Pogba has stated that Manchester United’s young players must make the most of their chances in the first team as they are arguably playing for “maybe the biggest club in history”.
Sunday’s Premier League encounter against Merseyside outfit Everton at Old Trafford is due to be the 4,000th in a row in which the Red Devils have included at least one academy graduate in their matchday squad.
That run, which stretches back to the incredible year of 1937, has been kept alive by current head coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s commitment to promoting youngsters into the first team this campaign.
Thursday’s 4-0 Europa League victory against Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar saw nine players with United academy backgrounds included in the squad.
And Pogba, who joined United as a 16-year-old, is now encouraging the youngsters at Solskjaer’s disposal not to take their opportunities for granted and impress as much as they possibly can.
The 26-year-old World Cup winner is currently out of action due to an ankle injury but Pogba spoke to the club’s official website and stated, “I’ve said to a lot of the young players who have been with the first team: ‘Guys, you don’t know how lucky you are.’ Unfortunately for us, we’ve had a lot of injured players and it’s, therefore, a big chance for the young players to be involved with the first team,”
He added, “They have the chance to do well and stay there. So, I said to them: ‘Take this luck and take this opportunity because it’s important until the other players come back fit.’ You never know, there could be an injured player and a young player comes in and plays a great game and they stay with the first team until the end of their career.
