Collyer becomes Academy graduate 251

Manchester United midfielder Toby Collyer has joined the illustrious list of Academy players to have graduated from our youth system.

Collyer, 20, came off the bench in the second half of United's narrow Community Shield defeat against Manchester City on Saturday, taking our tally of Academy graduates to 251.

Late last season, Ethan Wheatley became the 250th Academy graduate play for the men's first team when he featured against Sheffield United back in April.

Collyer impressed Erik ten Hag during pre-season, featuring regularly during Tour 2024, presented by Snapdragon, and was rewarded for his efforts with an appearance at Wembley against our local rivals.

The 20-year-old replaced Kobbie Mainoo in the 59th minute under the arch and received warm applause from the Reds fans as he took to the field.

United continue to produce players in our Academy, with Reds greats David Beckham and Gary Neville among those to have graduated, and Collyer has now joined that list. The likes of current first-team members Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho are both players who were also given that opportunity by Ten Hag.

Brian Kidd, Jonathan Spector, Tom Cleverley and Adnan Januzaj all also made their inaugural United first-team appearances in the Community Shield. 

While being signed from Brighton in 2022, Collyer qualifies as an Academy graduate because United conducted a review in the summer which determined that the methodology to decide which players are deemed graduates was to change.

In 2023, the Premier League announced that Premier League 2 teams were to switch from Under-23s to Under-21s.

Therefore, Our Academy's graduate-determining criteria has been backdated to 2012, when the Premier League's Elite Player Performance Plan - the last major change to the regulation of the Academy system - was introduced.

Congratulations for the remarkable achievement, Toby!

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