Manchester United: Blog: Labour of love

Not many people get to work for the team they support, even fewer have the opportunity to help develop the club's future stars. Yet that's what Mark Johnson - Academy supervisor since 2003 - and a host of Red-supporting colleagues get to do on a weekly basis during the season...

Virtually all the staff are big United fans so we all get a real buzz out of working here especially as this is the place where you see some of the club’s stars of tomorrow. All the Under-18 Academy games are shown live on MUTV and typically kick-off at 11am on a Saturday.

At the same time, the club’s Under-16 team play the opposition’s equivalent age range on one of the other pitches. On a Sunday we also look after the matches involving the Academy’s younger sides – on one weekend the Under-14s, 12s and 10s will play at home, with the Under-13s, 11s and 9s playing the same team away. It then swaps around the following weekend.

In preparation for Under-18 and 16 games, we usually get to Carrington for 9am to open up the changing rooms and get things ready for when the teams arrive which is usually between 9.30 and 10am. I work alternate weekends with my colleague Ian Armstrong.

As well as myself and Ian, there are three permanent attendants - Dave Murray, Christine Royal and Allyson Peel. Two others - Kieran Cook and Stuart Brown – help out for the bigger games and we also have two canteen ladies - Lindsey Amuzu and Lesley Brown - who look after refreshments for the coaching staff and visitors.

One of our main duties is to make sure everyone using the facilities does so safely. Our attendants are also on hand to assist the physios when and where needed if a player is injured and needs medical attention at hospital.

Another major part of our job involves child protection – the law states that we cannot allow anyone to take photographs of any players under 18 so the attendants keep an eye out to make sure spectators adhere to that rule.

We get decent crowds most weeks and for the bigger games against the likes of Liverpool and City we can have around 200 people. There’s always big rivalry when we play those sides, but our pitchside attendants make sure the parents don’t get too excited and start shouting at the referee!

Now and again, some of the first team pop along to the games. Knowing your heroes are watching is a great boost for the young lads. The club have always put a lot of time and effort into developing young talent and, as staff, we get a real thrill out of seeing the likes of Danny Welbeck and Jonny Evans progress to the first team having watched them come through the ranks.

The facilities for the club’s young players are second to none and it’s a real privilege to be part of the process that helps unearth some future stars.

The views expressed in this blog are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Manchester United FC.

Report by Mark Johnson

Edwin van der Sar