Manchester United academy chief Brian McClair feels the youth setup of past years was more beneficial.

The Scot also feels clubs can benefit from arranging their own football 'festivals' at training grounds to run alongside the new Barclays Under-18 Premier League fixture programme.

"If you go back to the old games programme in the sense of pre-Academy, it worked very well," McClair told ManUtd.com recently. "You had a 'B' team, an 'A' team and the Reserves all playing on a Saturday and the first team often played on a Saturday on the majority of occasions.

"All your players played. There was always the thought you were learning about what it's like to be a football player in that you had 15-year-old kids who would play with the first-years we've got now, so the Under-17s and Under-16s, and play a lot with the 'B' team. Everybody got a game and, if you did really well in the 'B' team, you could get in the 'A' team.

"If you didn't do so well in the 'A' team, you'd be back in the 'B' team and it was similar with the Reserves. So there was always that transition - when you're doing well, the reward is to stay in that particular group. If you're struggling or your performance is poor, you go back down to the level where you were."