Sunday, 21st September, 2014
Louis van Gaal has thrown the gauntlet down to Manchester United's young players, promising he will hand them a central role in his plans if they can prove they are good enough.
The Dutchman has been criticised for offloading a number of the club's youth products, including Danny Welbeck, Tom Lawrence and Tom Cleverley.
However, Van Gaal has pointed to his experience at Bayern Munich and Barcelona, where he handed young players an opportunity, which they grabbed, and became "guardians" of the club's identity for the long term.
"I did it with Barcelona where I gave debuts to Xavi, [Andres] Iniesta, [Carles] Puyol and [Victor] Valdes", he said via his club's site.
"At Bayern Munich, we had [Holger] Badstuber, [Thomas] Muller and [David] Alaba who can guard the culture.
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"I also want to do that here but the youth players have to take their chance when they receive it", Van Gaal added.
The tactician pointed to Wayne Rooney as a current "guardian", while also revealing himself to be familiar with the club's history and famous Class of 92.
"Every youth player who comes through can be a guardian. The 'Class of 92' were guardians of the club's culture. You need very good youth education so you have always more players who can become guardians.
"Wayne Rooney is also a guardian of this culture now as captain and he can transfer this culture to his fellow players."
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