'Six or seven could make it' - How Youth Cup final could launch new Manchester United careers

The success of a club's youth academy is not measured by the matches it wins but by the legacy of the players it nurtures. However, Manchester United might well need to make an exception for the FA Youth Cup final this week.

In the entire history of the prestigious youth tournament, United are the most successful side, having won 10 times, and on Wednesday night they will play their first final in 11 years when Nottingham Forest head to Old Trafford in front of a bumper home crowd, most of which will be expecting trophy number 11.

"There is definitely an excitement starting to grow," U18s manager Travis Binnion tells the Manchester Evening News. "It’s been a while since the semi-final and the week leading up to it, we are looking forward to it.

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"When you get to this stage in the competition, those previous successes in 1992 and 2011 are mentioned and you are compared to those groups a little, which is nice for the lads.

"People talk about DNA at various clubs, but it is genuinely part of this football club. It goes right back to the fabric of it. There are hairs on the back of my neck stood up thinking about the Busby Babes the class of ’92, 2011. The endless 4,000 plus games of academy products being involved in the squad."

The record Binnion speaks of is still utterly mind-boggling. There are now 4,146 consecutive games in which a United academy player has featured in a first-team squad, and a list of 243 youth products who have played for the senior side.

With 63,455 tickets sold as of Monday afternoon, United have already smashed the previous attendance record in the competition, which stood at 38,137 when United faced Arsenal in the 2007