Ranking the Premier League's Manchester United Academy Graduates

There are many quality players who come through the academy at Manchester United and, for whatever reason, fail to force their ways into the first team.

Football can be a cruel sport, and only the elite take their place in the United senior team.

Yet the training and coaching the academy players receive provides a solid football foundation that serves graduates well wherever they land after leaving United. Throughout the English football pyramid and beyond, you will find graduates of United's academy putting their excellent tutelage to work in many different clubs.

One notable example would be Nick Barmby's exciting, young Hull City squad, which has certainly caught the eyes of United fans.

With the likes of James Chester, Cameron Stewart, Corry (brother of Jonny) Evans and Joe Dudgeon playing alongside current on-loan Manchester United academy talents Robbie Brady and Joshua King, Barmby is building an especially talented team of players who all come from the same academy and share a similar footballing philosophy. While Hull are set to miss out on promotion this season, you wouldn't bet against this young team to be up there next season as these players grow and develop together.

In this article we will take a look at the academy graduates who have fought back from the disappointment of facing that dreaded meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson to forge respectable careers in the English Premier League.

7. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake is not a name that you will see on the back pages of newspapers; he is not a goal machine or a player who has the ability to change games in an instance.

He has scored important and sometimes quite magical goals, sure, but it is a work rate and professionalism that allows more gifted players around him to thrive that is his main asset.

Wolves have taken to playing with a lone striker this season, with Kevin Doyle and Steven Fletcher being rotated in that role. Only when manager Mick McCarthy deployed the team in a 4-4-2 formation (as he did against Newcastle to some success) has Ebanks-Blake seen game time.

He still has an eye for goal and much to offer and will certainly be looking for more appearances next season.

Given Wolverhampton's relegation, it would not surprise me in the slightest if Ebanks-Blake were to leave Molineux Stadium, either back up into the Premier League or to another championship club where he would be utilized more often.

6. Chris Eagles

Chris Eagles is a very good footballer. He has that natural comfort, ability and swagger on the ball that would be appreciated in any team.

Yet it was through sheer hard work and endeavor that Eagles managed to keep himself in the top flight of English football.

Eagles made his name in Owen Coyle's Burnley side of 2008-09, which gained promotion to the Premier League, earning the distinction of being the smallest town to host a Premier League club in history. 

Eagles' versatility was perhaps his greatest asset; upon signing for Burnley in 2008, according to the BBC, Coyle said of Eagles that "he can play as a striker or behind the striker or wide or as a central midfielder. He gives you a host of variations."

Eagles played consistently for Burnley, becoming one of their better creative outlets.

Owen Coyle quit Burnley for the Bolton Wanderers job halfway through the 2009-10 Premier League campaign, and Eagles followed his old manager there over a year later.

While Eagles is once again fighting a relegation battle, Bolton fans can take some comfort in knowing that at least one of their players has had experience in that situation before and that their club are in a much better situation that Burnley were in their inaugural Premier League season.

5. Fraizer Campbell

Fraizer Campbell has not enjoyed the finest of starts to his career. Although he boasted fairly reputable scoring records on loan at Royal Antwerp and Hull City, Campbell is now 24 years old and has yet to become a consistently selected player for any of his clubs.

That looked set to change when Campbell signed for Sunderland in 2009.

Forming a potentially deadly partnership with Darren Bent, Campbell finished his first season with Sunderland with a rather paltry four goals in 31 appearances.

For a young player, however, it was all about development and building confidence while playing in a club's first team.

Unfortunately, at the start of the 2010-11 season, Campbell injured his anterior cruciate ligament. Upon his return to action the following March, Campbell was sidelined with a recurrence of the very same injury.

It was only the start of this calendar year that Campbell made a return to football.

Interim England manager Stuart Pearce rewarded Campbell with a cap against the Netherlands in February, despite his poor scoring and injury record. Nonetheless, what this shows is that Campbell still has admirers at the very top levels of the sport.

The talent and mentality are still there; if he can keep free of injury, Campbell may yet prove to be a top Premier League striker.

4. Darron Gibson

I was always a fan of Darron Gibson. I felt that the criticism he was receiving from some United fans was a little harsh and will remember his defence-splitting pass for Valencia's opener against Schalke 04 in last season's Champions League semifinal as a sign of what may have been.

There were times last season when United's midfield lacked a bit of character and when injuries took their toll on the team. Darron Gibson, when selected, seemed to be playing with the weight of the world on his shoulders as he tried to replace stellar, seasoned players in the United engine room.

He didn't take well to the criticism he was receiving, as we witnessed from his brief flirtation with Twitter before closing his account due to a bombardment of criticism.

Sir Alex Ferguson most likely recognized this trait in his character and decided it would be best for all involved if Gibson took his talents to a less-intimidating platform.

At Everton this season, Gibson has continued his solid development as a footballer. As he matures as a player and gains more experience, the nervy and agitated side of his character will disappear.

I have no doubts that as Gibson develops under David Moyes, his talents as a potent attacking midfielder will shine through.

3. Kieran Richardson

Kieran Richardson came immensely close to a permanent place in the Manchester United first team, perhaps more so than anyone else in this article.

Serving as Gabriel Heinze's understudy, Richardson made 41 league appearances for United over a five-year period. An able winger and full-back, Richardson possessed that key attribute of being versatile, which put him in a prime position to be an important squad player at Old Trafford.

But of course, succeeding at Old Trafford is not purely down to how good you are with the ball at your feet. You must also exhibit behaviour and an attitude that coincides with club standards.

While never a malicious player, Richardson was somewhat confrontational and arrogant in his youth.

While on loan at Bryan Robson's West Bromwich Albion, Richardson taunted Norwich City fans during a goal celebration. So disliked was Richardson's attitude amongst United's fans, the United fanzine Red Issue dubbed him "Lord Snooty" in one damning article.

Since moving to Sunderland, however, Richardson has become a much more reliable character. Injuries have set him back here and there, but he continues to be an influential and hard-working member of the Sunderland team, having made 34 appearances this season.

Under Martin O'Neil, Richardson has reverted back to his favoured left-wing role, where no doubt we will see the best of Richardson in the seasons to come.

2. Phil Bardsley

Phil Bardsley followed that familiar path for academy graduates on the fringes of the first team: a period of time out on loan at Royal Antwerp followed by loan spells at a number of British clubs such as Rangers, Aston Villa and Sheffield United.

Unfortunately, like so many before him, Bardsley didn't meet Sir Alex Ferguson's standards.

Yet unlike those other players, Bardsley landed on his feet immediately and at a club where he has gone on to have a fantastic career in the top flight of English football.

It didn't start so good, of course.

Then-incumbent manager Steve Bruce was initially reluctant to utilize Bardsley, instead opting to deploy Alan Hutton and John Mensah at right-back. However, they were only loan signings, and Bardsley was always going to get his chance.

When it came, he grasped it and has since gone on to become Sunderland's first-choice right-back.

As the reigning Sunderland player of the season (a true measure of how highly he is regarded by fans, teammates and the club alike), Bardsley was always going to be in consideration for a starting position in the team.

The signings of Wes Brown and John O'Shea last summer must have been unsettling for him, given how both have had vast experience and success at right-back. 

Twenty-eight league appearances is still a respectable total for Bardsley, considering the competition he has had to overcome, and he looks set to remain a key defensive player for Sunderland.

1. Ryan Shawcross

This will most likely be a controversial choice: Stoke remain an unpopular team because of the perceived ugliness and brutality of their game.

No player embodies this more than their captain, Ryan Shawcross, whose horrible, potentially career-threatening foul on Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey last season was (quite rightly) universally criticised.

Yet it remains indisputable that Shawcross is a top quality centre-half.

Tough, no-nonsense and a fantastic leader (You are not named club captain at the age of 22 for nothing.), Shawcross could have gone on to have a good career at Old Trafford.

Don't believe me? Have a read of what Sir Alex Ferguson thought of Shawcross:

"It always grieves me when I have to release a young player of great potential," Ferguson told talkSPORT only a few short months ago. "And Shawcross certainly fell into that category. He had the misfortune - though he perhaps doesn't see it that way considering the success he has had with Stoke - of coming through along with a number of other young defenders."

It was only the emergence of players such as Jonny Evans and Gerard Piqué (who subsequently left Old Trafford) that stopped Shawcross from progressing to the United senior squad.

Ferguson went on to suggest that, had he known Piqué would end up leaving too, he would have liked to have kept Shawcross for first-team consideration.

I predict that before his career is over, there will be one more big move for Ryan Shawcross.

I can think of a number of teams in the upper echelons of the Premier League which could use a man like him at centre-half.

Honourable Mentions

Wes Brown and John O'Shea

It seemed somewhat unfair to place United veterans Wes Brown and John O'Shea amongst players who have forged the best part of their careers away from Old Trafford.

Both have, at one time or another, been integral parts of the United first-team squad and spent the majority of the careers at the club where they started as trainees.

Wes Brown was a versatile defender whose greatest time in the red United shirt was during United's 2007-08, Champions League-winning campaign, in which he became the first-choice right-back in Gary Neville's absence. Alongside Edwin van der Sar, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidić and Patrice Evra, Brown formed what was an era-defining defensive unit.

A local lad, his departure from United was met with a deal of sadness from the United faithful, but it was a move necessary to allow players such as Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and the da Silva twins more game time.

Similarly, O'Shea's versatility became his most defining attribute. Able to play anywhere in the back four, midfield and, famously, even in goal, O'Shea became a key first-team player because of his work ethic and consistency in whichever position Ferguson deployed him.

Had the aforementioned youngsters not found their ways into first-team consideration, O'Shea would almost certainly still be the United utility man today.

So how would you rank United's top-flight academy graduates? Have I forgotten anyone? Let me know in the comments below.