UNITED LAUNCH ALUMNI SCHEME

The club is in the process of setting up a new scheme and several former academy players were part of the first meeting

- TYRONE MARSHALL

ON one of the smaller pitches at United's training ground, coach Neil Harris is putting Matthew Olosunde, Oli Kilner and Eric Hanbury through their paces.

On the side of the pitch, Tom Thorpe and Callum Gribbin are in conversation. Joe Thompson floats between groups, the glue holding it all together.

These footballers all have one thing in common; they came through the academy system at United. In fact, they have two things in common, they were all released by the Reds as well, but then that is why they are here. They spent last week at Carrington as part of the club's first training camp for their new alumni project.

This is the 'soft launch' of a scheme that has been on the cards for 18 months, with plans stepping up over the last six to eight months.

A working group, led by 34-year-old Thompson, has been looking at what exactly players will want from the formalising of a way for the club to stay connected with their academy prospects. A grander launch is due for January and initially, United are opening the alumni group up to around 225 former players, which is those who have left since 2012, were registered over the age of 15 or for five years or more.

It will eventually include all kinds of activities and will act as a network for those former players to tap into whenever required. It is also a helping hand from United, as the cohort for the first week proved.

Kilner, 19, is on the road to recovery after a 10-month absence with a broken ankle suffered while at Oldham. Olosunde, 25, is out of contract after an injury-hit spell at Preston and 19-year-old goalkeeper Hanbury is looking for a new club after being released by United in the summer.

Gribbin, 24, left in 2019 but was highly rated in the academy and is now at FC United, but suffered a serious knee injury in March.