Stephen Torpey: Man United’s head of academy shares exciting ambition

Manchester United have enjoyed another successful season at academy level.

The under-18s are currently in the final of the Premier League Cup and in the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup.

The under-21s are also currently second in the table, just behind Chelsea. Academy players Shea Lacey, Jack and Tyler Fletcher, and Bendito Mantato have all made their first team debuts this season.

The Athletic has interviewed the club’s current head of the academy, Steve Torpey .

He explained that he gave up early on a playing career but eventually realised that his true calling was to be a coach. Torpey revealed, “I knew I wanted to coach; I felt it passionately. I want to help in youth development. And that became me and still is. I’m a youth developer. It’s what I love.”

The head of the academy had previous experience with Manchester City and Brentford before taking over from Nick Cox at Carrington last year.

The 44-year-old is clearly happy where he is, as he stated, “I could (now) work as Manchester United’s academy director for the rest of my life and I would be content, as long as we’re doing great things.”

Commenting on what he wants to achieve at United, he boldly asserted, “I want this to be the greatest academy ever. I’m a big believer in purpose and I know Manchester United has its way. We know the DNA is strong. United need to be the greatest developers of football excellence.”

Torpey continued, “no matter where I’ve worked before, who I’ve supported as a child, or what I’ve played for, I am totally aligned to the ethos of United and its fans because I think there’s no better feeling than that.” Speaking on what values he tries to instil in the academy, he stated, “courage, character and care.”

He is aware that playing for United, even at youth level, is incomparable to playing for many other clubs.

Torpey stated, “the pressure is a privilege here, and there’s no greater place. Along with (Spain’s) Barcelona and maybe Ajax (in the Netherlands), I think we’re the three clubs in the world that have that tradition of youth and our clubs are built on it.”

Therefore, as a self-described youth developer, he claimed, “there’s no better place in the world for me to be.”

The 44-year-old added that he wants to maintain the DNA of the club but also introduce a more innovative way of doing things. Explaining this, he said he wants to keep what the club is doing well but also consider why they are doing it and ponder whether they could improve.

He spoke of the need to continue to try to improve facilities and explained, “we need to be the academy of choice for the area. If you can attract the best players as early as possible, that’s just going to create our environment, an elite environment. Staff and players helping each other improve.”

Torpey also explained that he wants young players to come to the club and truly believe they will get a chance in the first team if they prove to be good enough.

He explained, “my drive will be (for United) to be the most standout succession-planners in the world of football, so that we’ll be able to map the succession of these young players and open pathways and create opportunities. And that’s the biggest thing for me.”

Finally, without naming names to avoid heaping on pressure, Torpey claimed that the academy now has some incredibly exciting players to look forward to seeing.

He explained, “I wouldn’t want to share names right now, but it’s quite evident that there are certain names out there which we all know about and the fans would know about. We’re so excited by those players, really excited by them. They could go on and do some amazing things for this club, but at the same time, we’ve got to protect them a little bit.”

Feature image Carl Recine via Getty Images

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