Nick Cox hails Erik ten Hag for providing ‘invaluable’ experience to Man United’s youngsters on eve of Under-18 cup final… with academy chief highlighting Kobbie Mainoo as an example for next generation to follow

Nick Cox leans back in his chair to reflect for a moment before answering how important winning is on the back of Manchester United’s Under-18’s Premier League North title.

‘I won’t be a success in my role if I’ve got a shelf full of trophies, no one will care in the long run,’ Cox, United’s academy manager, tells Mail Sport.

‘I will be defined by the amount of young players that we support to reach their full potential, play in our first team, or go and play across the leagues. We’ve got a brilliant track record of doing that.

‘We’ve got a great track record right now of boys in the first team, historically as well. That’s what will define us.’

Cox only needed to look at the team-sheet at Wembley on Sunday to see the fruits of his and all other key academy coaches and figures’ labour.

Nine academy graduates in the team – Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garancho, Scott McTominay and Marcus Rashford in the starting line-up and five youngsters, including young centre back Louis Jackson in the first team squad for the first time, on the bench.

None of Jackson, Harry Amass, Habeeb Ogunneye or Ethan Wheatley would get on, but nonetheless, the pathway to seeing a 250th academy graduate reach the first team is as close as ever.

For now, and that may include the aforementioned quartet, attention is on Tuesday night’s Premier League Cup final at Leigh Sports Village against Manchester City.

Cox, who will be among a host of key United personnel in attendance, wants a full house and wants players to feel the pressure that comes with wearing a United shirt. 

Both Mainoo and Garnacho have shown how well they deal with pressure on the biggest stages following their educations.

‘I want the boys to play in front of crowds; I want the boys to play against the best opponents; I want the boys to feel the pressure,’ Cox says.

‘I want the boys to fill the spotlight actually, because they’re going to need to be able to go and survive in what I believe is the most amazing sporting arena in the world, which is the Premier League and Old Trafford.’

Mainoo is strolling to his car after training moments before this interview with Cox. He’s relaxed as he checks his phone before pulling out of his parking space.

On the pitch he looks equally as calm. Composure, though, is no accident in Mainoo’s game.

‘I think that you’ve watched Kobbie Mainoo cope really well in some tough environments, right?’ Cox continues.

‘Champions League games away in Turkey, he’s played at Wembley for England and he’s played at Old Trafford against Liverpool. You look and you think, “should he be able to cope with those things at this age?” 

‘But if you unwind his journey, you’ll see that at the age of 12 we took him to America where he played in a big tournament and he was the best player and he was expected to win. We took him to other tournaments along the way but you’d have seen him then play in the FA Youth Cup final in front of 65,000.

‘I think it’s no surprise that, OK, so he hadn’t seen quite what it looked like to play at Old Trafford against Liverpool, but he felt something like it before and he knew he could cope.

‘Our job is to build resilience in the boys by slowly exposing them to environments that stretch, challenge, stress them out a little bit so that when they’re in that world of having to win, they’ve got loads of reference points that they can lean on that will remind them that they can cope, they have coped and they will cope. Kobbie is a great example.’

Ready-made composure is one of the key factors why first team boss Erik ten Hag, who is kept fully up to date on the progress of emerging talents at the club, did not hesitate to throw him in.

‘He’s been incredibly supportive of our program and our players,’ Cox says, with Ten Hag recently greeting the Under-18s after their title win, making an effort to go around and shake each of their hands.

‘I don’t know for sure, but I would suggest he was appointed because of his track record or one of the reasons he was the lead candidate would be because he had a track record of developing players and I think any Manchester United manager has to know how to win but has to know how to stick to our values of integrating youth into a winning first team.

‘The bit that people don’t see is the amount of boys that actually work with him on a daily basis to support training, not necessarily the group that we’ve been talking about here at the 18s, but the 21s have a really close connection and boys that will support the team to prepare on a weekly basis.

‘That’s invaluable in terms of our young players’ learning and education, to have the opportunity to go and train some of the best players in the world, some of the most successful players in the world only brings about and accelerates their development even further. That’s a great ingredient that money can’t buy.’

Not since Kieran McKenna was leading the Under-18s have that age group gone ahead and won their title and so the chance at a league and cup double, before a national final against the Premier League South champions at the end of the season, offers the chance to finish the campaign with a flourish.

The academy and the next generation of stars are part of the fabric at Old Trafford and in the fan-base, with many eager to spot the next talent that could crack Ten Hag’s first team.

For those who want to be at the final on Tuesday they can, with tickets free online.

‘I hope we can fill Leigh Sports Village,’ Cox concludes. ‘I think it will be a really nice atmosphere if we can get both home and away spectators into the stadium. And there’s a number of reasons why I hope supporters will go.

‘Number one, I want them to create an environment that feels like a first team game, that feels like there’s a little bit riding on it because that is the way our fans can support the development of our kids. If any of our boys go on to play in the first team, our fans can say they played their part.

‘The other one is, I just want to be a memorable night for the boys. I’m about kids having memorable nights and if there’s a big crowd and there’s some noise that will make it that little bit more special. I always think it’s nice for supporters.

‘I tend not to talk about the individuals that I think are on the journey to our first team but I think fans love to go watch the games and pick out the one that they back to go and play in the first team and when they debut, it’s always a nice sense of ‘Yeah, I was there when…’ I just always think that’s a good bit of fun.’

Tickets to the Premier League Cup final at Leigh Sports Village on Tuesday April 23 can be found HERE.