Old enough if good enough?

There are only a pocketful of hours since Juventus lost 1-0 at San Siro for Milan after a Robinho penalty kick after 30 minutes played. The Old Lady had more possession than the home side, and pushed on in the entire second half for an equaliser, but failed to find the way to the back of the net. However, still when 1-0 down in a difficult game on the road, Antonio Conte subbed on a familiar bloke, Paul Pogba, in an attempt to turn the game around.

By @Nicopoleides



Neither Juve or the young Frenchman were able to actually make any impact on the scoresheet, but the message from Conte to Pogba was clear enough:  "I think you are good enough to help us grab a point or two, despite the hard task." This is exactly diametrical of the messages Poggers got by Mr. Ferguson for less than a year ago, which basically was "we play the worst side in the Prem at home, have no players in your position available, but I'd rather play players out of position than you in your right one." Yes, I'm thinking of the 3-2 loss to Blackburn on New Years' Eve, where Rafael and Park played as centre midfielders. And this is a gaffer and club used to get credit for developing the youth. I don't think Pogba has developed THAT much over the past eleven months, so I fully understand why he left.

The point is what this means for United's tradition on giving youth the opportunity on the highest level.  How are we supposed to develop players from the Academy and U21 teams when they barely gets time on the pitch before the age of around 22? Additionally it won't be easy to sign talented teenagers for our youth sides, when they know that the road to first team football on a more-or-less regular basis is extremely long even if they actually are good enough.

On another note, Ferguson is sticking to Giggs and Scholes, who rarely performs good enough these days and is easily outplayed by quicker and more aggressive players, instead of trying to give Cleverley and/or Anderson a run of games. Is it right to play club legends in significant games (like Norwich away) because they are legends and only give the younger prospects playing time in completely insignificant battles (like Galatasaray away)? Does Fergie think this is the right way to attract young players with world-class potential?

Personally I hope Giggs and Scholes retire as they deserve (champions) in May 2013, but I fear that their own presence will reduce the likeliness of actually doing that. But retirement for the legendary gentlemen seems to be the only way to make Fergie play players in the spring of their careers. Which is far off what we've been used through by the Scotsman throughout the past 26 years. I beg him to differ and get back to United's tradition and go by the motto of Sir Matt: If you're good enough, you're old enough.