Towards the end of his first press conference as Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho unfurled a sheet of paper which apparently disproved the 'lie' that he didn't promote young players. Clearly, he anticipated the question.
He said that he had promoted a total of 49 players across the six clubs that he has managed. The sheet of paper contained the names, though Mourinho did not read them out.
You know how many young players I promote to the first team from Academies? I promote 49 players from Academies and two factors that are very important in this record.
Sometimes you promote players because you have so many injuries you don't have another choice. You have to bring them up from the Academy because you have lots of players that are injured.
The second factor is when you are not playing to your targets, it is easier to bring them up.
Daniel Storey of Football365 has tweeted 40 or so academy products used by Mourinho. The inclusion of Casemiro is a bit dubious considering that he played three seasons for Sao Paolo before transferring to Real Madrid.
Here (excluding Casemiro) are Mourinho's babies.
So, ignoring Uniao de Leiria, 40 academy products used by Jose Mourinho. He's probably *technically* right. pic.twitter.com/2rKOVjsfwG
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) July 5, 2016
Out of this list of names (there are still nine missing, presumably from his time at Benfica and Uniao de Leiria) there are some that have even enjoyed lucrative careers.
At Porto, he gave a chance to young Ricardo Costa who subsequently made 22 caps for Portugal. His reputation as a manager who ignores youngsters is primarily built on his first spell at Chelsea, where the graduate class include the names Anthony Grant, Steven Watt, Jimmy Smith, Michael Woods, Ben Sahar, Sam Hutchinson and Lenny Pidgeley.
At Inter, he did promote Davide Santon who thereafter transferred to Newcastle United.
By his own standards, Mourinho went through a borderline Matt Busby phase at Real Madrid. He evidently liked the look of the products on the conveyor belt, promoting Alvaro Morata, probably the brightest star among the Mourinho babes. Jese Rodriguez and Nacho were given their start by Jose.
In his latter spell at Chelsea, Mourinho parachuted in a few youngsters, the most successful thus far being Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Andreas Christesen, Bertrand Traore.
