7 Man Utd academy graduates who flopped after leaving Old Trafford

Marcus Rashford seems to be edging closer to leaving Manchester United.

Wythenshawe's best might be motivated by Scott McTominay's achievements at Napoli, Angel Gomes' England call-ups following outstanding performances at Lille, or Paul Pogba's rise to stardom at Juventus, an era long past. Those individuals have demonstrated that there can be a future beyond Old Trafford for former Carrington trainees.

Not every Manchester United academy graduate achieved success at other clubs. We've found seven examples of homegrown players who faltered after leaving the club.

Jesse Lingard

Lingard made over 200 appearances for his hometown club, and his career undoubtedly reached its pinnacle with the match-winner in Manchester United's 2016 FA Cup final victory over Crystal Palace.

He arguably never looked better than during his impressive half-season loan stint at West Ham in 2021, when he scored nine goals in just 16 Premier League appearances for the club.

The standout performance at the London Stadium made him appear to have all the skills to excel elsewhere, but his career stagnated upon his return to his parent club, where he was relegated to a bench warmer and watched his contract expire unused.

He reportedly turned down a permanent return to West Ham because of a more financially attractive offer from Nottingham Forest, but he was one of several players who failed to make any notable impression as part of the newly-promoted club's uncoordinated and haphazard transfer strategy.

After just one season at the City Ground, Lingard spent around seven months scouting potential clubs before ultimately selecting the unconventional FC Seoul as his next destination.

Willy Kambwala

*So far.

We're not giving up on Kambwala just yet. He still has time ahead of him to be a success at the Ceramica.

It's now just half a year into the 20-year-old's first season outside of Old Trafford, and even in the midst of Manchester United's woeful 2023-24 season he looked promising in his initial appearances.

The club's decision to sell for an estimated €11.5 million may not seem like a bad deal at this point in time. Kambwala's transition to Villarreal has not gotten off to a good start; he has only made two appearances in La Liga and was given a straight red card in one of those games. Ouch.

Brandon Williams

We often refer to a player as a flop when they fail to get a card they are trying to catch, especially in games like poker or gin rummy. Yet could that,-under specific rules, possibly depend on the particular game, differentiate the handling of such a situation into hit or miss?

The fact that Williams has been a free agent for six months at this stage in his career indicates that his career hasn't progressed as expected, considering he was once considered a promising young player with great potential to become a United fan favorite, especially given his early impressive performances at left-back.

A 2021-22 loan with Norwich City did not spark his career, nor did a brief stint at their rivals Ipswich Town last season amidst off-field controversies that involved court claims he "inhaled laughing gas from balloons" before a high-speed car crash.

He's still only 24 and could yet achieve a promising future if he focuses and trains hard. But we have our misgivings.

Adnan Januzaj

This sentence might be a bit strong for the Belgian winger, who made more than a hundred appearances over the course of five seasons with Real Sociedad.

He had his standout moments during his time in the Basque Country and was part of the team that prevailed in the historic 2020 Copa del Rey final against local rivals Athletic Club, although he did not make an appearance off the bench in the final.

Ultimately, though, Januzaj's post-United career gives us an overwhelming feeling of 'meh'. Did we envision him performing thrillingly in his debut appearances at Old Trafford? Or was the media just desperate to find a shred of positivity in the brief David Moyes era?

Timothy Fosu-Mensah

We feel somewhat sorry for including the Dutchman, as he has encountered really terrible misfortune with injuries.

Bayer Leverkusen seemed to be a suitable match for Fosu-Mensah, who joined in January 2021 for a low transfer fee after struggling to make the team's first team at Old Trafford. However, a knee ligament injury just a few weeks after arriving ended his time in Germany.

In three and a half seasons, he made only 30 appearances for Leverkusen, including a grand total of zero in their historic double-winning campaign under Xabi Alonso last term. That meant he wasn't eligible for any medals before his quiet departure in the summer. Poor fellow.

According to recent reports, he has returned to training with Ajax. It would be an intriguing comeback story if he can make a successful return with his beloved childhood club.

Cameron Borthwick-Jackson

Manchester born left-back Borthwick-Jackson was a favourite of Louis van Gaal's, although maybe it was apparent to everyone else that he didn't quite have what it took to secure a spot at his hometown club, it was justifiable to assume that he would have had a reasonably decent enough career.

No, indeed not. The 27-year-old is currently without a club, having been released by Slask Wroclaw following a failed loan spell away to Ross County last season. That’s a bleak statement, isn’t it?

Scott Wootton

Going back to the late Fergie era, we can include Wootton in the category of players who would have been suitable for other clubs.

The player joined his former rivals Leeds United in 2013 after he was released but had a difficult time at Elland Road during their period of average performance in the second tier before the arrival of Bielsa.

After departing from Leeds, Wootton persisted in his quest to secure a lucrative career, playing for clubs within the lower divisions of the Football League, including MK Dons, Plymouth, Wigan Athletic, and Morecambe, before transferring to the Australian A-League team Wellington Phoenix in 2013.

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Mysterious ghost island; spotted by NASA - before vanishing entirely

The notion of an "island of the dead" or a secretly abandoned place might evoke a plotline from a popular mystery series.

It has become a reality in the Caspian Sea.

Satellites spotted a mysterious island, only to lose sight of it entirely.

Following an eruption of a mud volcano in the year 2023.

By late 2024, it had almost entirely dissolved.

According to NASA's Earth Observation Program, the island shifted out of sight like a mysterious ghost.

'The Kumani Bank mud volcano's massive eruptions have resulted in several temporary islands forming on multiple occasions since it first erupted in 1861,' it explained.

This underwater feature is also known as Chigil-Deniz and is situated approximately 15 miles west of Azerbaijan's eastern coast, at a distance of about 25 kilometers.

NASA's Landsat 8 and 9 satellites took images of the island on November 18, 2022, February 14, 2023, and December 25, 2024.

In November, the volcanic peak was still submerged underwater.

By February, however, the island had emerged, and a sediment plume drifted away from it.

Mark Tingay, a geologist at the University of Adelaide, stated that additional satellite observations indicate that the island existed between January 30 and February 4 and measured approximately 400 meters (1,300 feet) in diameter.

However, by the end of 2024, this island had vanished out of sight with more than half of the Kumani Bank exposed above the water.

Previous eruptions of the volcano have taken place in bursts lasting under two days, and have resulted in the formation of islands of varying sizes and durations.

'A significant May 1861 event led to an island formation measuring approximately 87 meters in width and 3.5 meters in height above the water level,' NASA stated.

The one eroded away by early 1862.

The most powerful eruption, which occurred in 1950, resulted in the formation of an island that measured 700 meters (2,300 feet) in diameter and 6 meters (20 feet) in height.

Mr Tingay describes mud volcanoes as "weird and wonderful features" but admits that they are "largely understudied and little understood".

Most mud volcanoes are located in areas with significant tectonic activity, with Azerbaijan noteworthy for its unusually high frequency of such occurrences.

'Geologists have recorded over 300 earthquakes in eastern Azerbaijan and in the Caspian Sea, with the majority of them occurring on land,' NASA said.

'The region is situated within an area where the tectonic plates of the Arabian and Eurasia converge and come into contact.'

Unfortunately, mud volcanoes have the potential to pose a risk due to their capability to eject significant quantities of materials, including flames, over a relatively short duration.

"It is uncertain if the 2023 Kumani Bank eruption was explosive, but past eruptions of this and other nearby mud volcanoes have sent towering columns of fire hundreds of meters into the air," NASA noted.

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8 England internationals you totally forgot played in Europe: Crouch, Bentley, Hart…

Manchester United's striker Marcus Rashford is reported to be a potential loan transfer target for European clubs, with AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund among the teams interested in acquiring the services of the 27-year-old player.

We're all familiar with the names of Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sancho, who followed in the footsteps of stars like David Beckham, Chris Waddle, and Kevin Keegan by achieving significant success in Europe during their careers.

What about the England internationals who made less prominent overseas moves? Here are eight Englishmen who had stints abroad that largely evaded the spotlight.

Joe Hart

This news story got a lot of attention back then, but it's beginning to feel like it was all just a dream.

After falling out of favor at Manchester City due to Pep Guardiola's emphasis on playing from the back, Hart spent Guardiola's first season at the club without a significant trophy on loan at Torino.

He was still England’s top goalkeeper at that time and started almost every game of the 2016-17 Serie A season, but his reputation suffered after the club's chairman Urbano Cairo made a harsh comment saying “we didn’t expect so many mistakes from an England international”. Ouch.

He subsequently returned to England's shores on a loan deal with West Ham before joining Burnley permanently in 2018.

Micah Richards

To be fair, you might remember Richards at Fiorentina because he often brings it up in his post-playing career commentary.

During his time in Florence, the booming-voiced right-back developed a close bond with Mohamed Salah and was part of an eclectic team that also included Josip Ilicic, Alberto Aquilani, David Pizarro, Juan Cuadrado, Federico Bernardeschi and Joaquin.

Vincenzo Montella's team, in fact, finished fourth during Richards' 2014-15 loan spell and reached the semifinals of the Coppa Italia and the Europa League. However, Richards became somewhat of a sparing player, making just 14 starts overall.

Teddy Sheringham

Sheringham is the quintessential English football experience. 1980s Millwall. Two remarkable periods with Tottenham Hotspur. A crucial role in Manchester United's successful treble of 1998-99 and notable spells with Nottingham Forest, Portsmouth and West Ham.

Among all the other things, however, he gained experience for a season with the Swedish team Djurgardens IF on loan from Millwall before making his England debut.

He scored 13 goals in 21 appearances in the Swedish second division, helping the club earn promotion to the top flight in 1985. He then returned to Millwall, continued to perform well, and established himself as a consistent part of the team from then on.

Lee Sharpe

Sharpe's narrative has become a familiar one. A profoundly skilled player at Torquay United, a promising transfer to Manchester United prior to a decline at Leeds United.

Did you know the winger had two absolutely unremarkable spells outside of their home country?

The first was after he'd fallen out of favour at Elland Road, where David O'Leary loaned him to Sampdoria during the 1998-99 season. However, he only made a handful of appearances under David Platt before O'Leary replaced him with a young Luciano Spalletti by the end of the year. He finished the unsuccessful season with just three appearances in Sampdoria's relegation battle.

Later, he spent a brief period with Icelandic club Grindavik, announcing his retirement at the age of 32. The following year, in 2004, he exited retirement for a similarly short term at non-league team Garforth Town.

Peter Crouch

The six-foot-seven striker played for 11 teams in England, rising from his amateur start at a lesser-known club, Dulwich Hamlet, to starting in a Champions League final for Liverpool. A truly remarkable career journey.

After his loan stint at Dulwich, Tottenham sent a 19-year-old Crouch to IFK Hassleholm, who were playing in the Swedish third-tier division at that time. He scored three goals in eight appearances for the club before his parent club transferred him to Queens Park Rangers.

We have listed six of his clubs, so there should be no excuses for not getting a perfect score on our Crouchy quiz.

Ryan Shawcross

English international? Ryan Shawcross.

spectacular long-range bicycle kick.

To gain experience with the Belgian club.

In addition to Eriksson's squad, other notable players including Danny Simpson, Jonny Evans, Fraizer Campbell, Darron Gibson, and Ritchie De Laet trained at Busraustadion during that year.

Ryan Mason

.

His early days with Spurs saw him temporarily transferred on at least three occasions to Doncaster Rovers, Millwall, Swindon Town and Yeovil Town.

Buried amid the traditional rites of passage of playing in the Football League was a single spell with French side Lorient. At the time, the player was 21 years old, however, he made no appearances for the first team in the Ligue 1 league championship, opting instead to continue his development by playing in several games for their reserve team.

David Bentley

It's surprising, but Bentley is less than a year older than his former Tottenham teammate Luka Modric.

As Modric continues to excel professionally at Real Madrid, Bentley, by contrast, stopped playing over ten years ago at the age of 29. He decided to end his career, saying that he had lost his passion for football.

To be fair, we can understand why it happened given the way his career fizzled out with a series of unremarkable loans away from Tottenham. Spells at Birmingham City, West Ham, and a return to Blackburn Rovers failed to rekindle his spark.

Among those was a half a season with FC Rostov, where he became the first Englishman to play in the Russian Premier League. He made eight appearances for the club but was unable to score any goals or provide assists, and his time in the port city ended prematurely due to an ankle injury.

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Scientists have evidence that Adam and Eve existed

Leading researchers believe there is accumulating evidence that humans might be the direct descendants of the biblical individuals Adam and Eve.

There is controversy over the existence of Adam and Eve, but there is common ground among the three major monotheistic faiths—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—they are all in agreement that Adam and Eve were created by God and brought forth the human species.

Study results suggest that the Garden of Eden may not be just a myth based on biblical accounts, but a real location that has left evidence of its presence on Earth.

Archaeologists have found evidence suggesting that the Garden of Eden was not merely a legendary site, but also the origin of humanity's fundamentals. Simultaneously, biologists assert that humans universally descend from a single common ancestor.

It is thought that the Garden of Eden was situated in ancient Mesopotamia, which currently encompasses a large portion of Iraq and smaller areas of Syria, Iran, and Turkey.

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Bundesliga: Who pays to police high-risk games?

Germany's Supreme Court will soon make a ruling on the constitutionality of requiring Bundesliga clubs to pay for the expenses incurred by the police during league matches, which has been a contentious issue for 10 years.

Do football clubs have a legal obligation to cover the costs of police presence at "high-risk" matches?

What constitutes a high-risk match?

According to the DFL, "high-risk matches are matches in which, based on general experience or current knowledge, there is sufficient probability that a particularly dangerous situation will occur." The primary responsibility for deciding whether any given match should be designated as high-risk rests with the home club. However, the German Football Association (Deutscher Fussball Bund) also has the authority to classify a match as particularly at risk of rioting "based on its own findings."

What is the threshold for determining the assessment of a match as high-risk?

Around one in 12 top-tier league matches in Germany are considered high-risk, and this group includes several high-profile regional rivalries.

What led to the legal disagreement?

In 2015, the Bremen police sent the DFL a bill for $438,000 for the police operation to secure a match between Werder Bremen and Hamburg. This was the first time they had done this. The total amount of the disputed bills has since risen to over $3 million.

The legal basis for this is a regulation adopted by the city-state of Bremen in 2014. This regulation states that a fee should be implemented for "profit-driven events" with over 5,000 attendees if extra police are needed at the event location or its vicinity "owing to anticipated acts of violence."

Bremen's right to pass on the costs to the football clubs was upheld twice in higher courts. The DFL then filed an appeal with Germany's highest court.

What points are being presented in support of an argument?

The DFL claims that while clubs are responsible for stadium security, it is the government's job to ensure public safety outside the stadiums. The DFL says this is because the government has the power to use force, so it should fund this task through taxes, not user fees. The DFL also objects to the city-state of Bremen unilaterally classifying matches as high-risk with unclear criteria.

At the Constitutional Court hearing, Bremen's Interior Minister Ulrich Mäurer emphasized the significant financial burden on German states if they were required to significantly increase police officers for potential trouble-prone matches.

"They are being carried by the taxpayers," Mäurer said, arguing that measures implemented by the football clubs for increased security had not yet yielded the desired effect.

Germany's second tyre manufacturer is advocating for major German football leagues to cover the estimated costs of police presence at high-risk matches.

What implications will the Constitutional Court's judgement have?

If Bremen emerges victorious in this case, it could prompt other German states to adopt a similar approach by requiring clubs to cover a portion of the policing expenses for events deemed high-risk. The city-state of Hamburg has already expressed its intent to follow suit.

How do other EU countries address this issue?

In France, since 1995, football clubs have been responsible for the extra costs of police presence at high-risk matches. In Italy, such costs have been shared by the clubs since 2014. In Spain and the UK, the state covers all expenses related to police operations at football events.

This article was originally published in the International English language.

Author: Stefan Nestler

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