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Ah! Academy products... with so much time, money and effort being put into English football academies to produce more and more homegrown talent, it's always interesting to see just how well that the handful of promising young things that graduate, starry-eyed and dream-filled, out of these schools actually do make it big in the Premier League.
A study, reported by Sky Sports and the Daily Mail amongst others, has helpfully drilled it all down to the minutest level... literally:
#10. Ajax - 12, 617 minutes
Yeah, you read that right, Dutch giant's Ajax's famed footballing school were the 10th most represented Academy in the Premier League last season. Massive vote-of-confidence for the domestic schools that, eh?
Fun Fact? Arch-rivals Feyenoord were 11th with their players combining for a total of 12,589 minutes (a difference of merely 28 minutes; as close as last season's Eredivisie title race!)
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#9. Chelsea - 13,445 minutes
Would have been better last year too if they hadn't decided to send Bertrand Traore to Ajax and a whole truckload of others to Vitesse Arnhem (and two to Granada, because everyone sent someone to play for those Andalusians)
#8. Sheffield United - 13,564 minutes
Yeah, a League One outfit that hasn't graced the Top Division since 2007 had more Premier League minutes than Chelsea *cue rant about big money, loan dealings, and the merits of healthy living in Yorkshire*
The Blades achieved this high ranking mainly through the likes of Kyle Walker (2,704 minutes), Kyle Naughton (2,718 minutes), Harry Maguire (2,306 minutes) and Phil Jagielka (2,250 minutes). Not too shabby, eh?
#7. Arsenal - 13,599 minutes
Would have been considerably better if Jack Wilshere had stayed fit, wouldn't it?
#6. Everton - 13,855 minutes
The Toffees delivered thanks to the youth-friendly approach of Ronald Koeman. They are also considerably higher up than Liverpool on this list - reasonable cause for celebration, surely?
#5. West Ham - 13,907 minutes
The great Hammers' incessant production line of talent may seem to have dried up a touch in the past few years, but the ones that had passed out really have established themselves in the Premier League. #5 is a very decent place for the proud Academy
#4. Southampton - 14,340 minutes
As long as the Saints have a manager who believes wholeheartedly in their own home-grown talent, and as long as Liverpool FC continue to play in the Premier League, expect Southampton to remain in the top 5 of any such list
Now, before we get on to the podium places here are the key names from the rest of the list:
Rounding up the bottom is Hull City - who with 501 minutes is the lowest of any tip-flight academy, more than a 1000 minutes adrift of the next lowest, Watford (1,513 minutes).
The non-European club Academy most represented - and by a distance - is Argentina's great River Plate, whose graduates Manuel Lanzini, Ramiro Funes Mori, Roberto Pereyra and Erik Lamela notched up 5,883 minutes!
Schalke 04 (7,090 minutes), Derby County (7,240) and Sporting CP (8,499) make up 20th-18th places just behind Liverpool FC, who with 8,753 minutes is the lowest ranked of the top-6 English clubs, and by a fair margin, in 17th. How the Anfield Boot Room must be quaking at the thought. Hell, Genk's Academy graduates played 510 minutes more than them!
Barcelona's all-famous La Masia meanwhile saw their graduates racking up 10,858 minutes to see them placed a respectable 12th in England.
With that, we get to the medals places. Taking him Bronze is....
3. Manchester City - 16,226 minutes
No, we're not joking, Manchester City's Academy may have seen only one of their youth products play for its parent club (Kelechi Iheanacho - 526 minutes), but they still have plenty of alumni scattered across England's top division.
Ben Mee played 3,016 minutes for Burnley while Kasper Schmeichel played 2,667 minutes for defending champions Leicester City (yeah, Peter put his son in the City Academy instead of United's). Two others who racked up prominent numbers were Adam Clayton at Middlesbrough with 2,806 minutes and Glen Whelan at Stoke City, with 2,278
#2. Tottenham Hotspur - 21,668 minutes
Spurs have invested heavily in their youth system and it seems to be paying off, especially when they get somebody like Harry Kane move up the ranks.
The Premier League's golden boot winner racked up 2,536 minutes for the club but he wasn't the Spurs Academy player with most minutes - that would be Charlie Daniels and Adam Smith who each played 3000+ minutes for Bournemouth.
Oh, and Andros Townsend played a significant part in raising the Spurs Academy profile, too, playing 2,528 minutes for Crystal Palace.
#1. Manchester United - 44,055 minutes
The most heralded Academy in England left everyone else by the wayside again racking up more than double the minutes their nearest competitor could manage!
Helped by the fact that Paul Pogba (2,609 minutes) returned to England and brought with him a twitter emoji and by Jose Mourinho's sudden affinity to youth products (mainly in the shapes of Marcus Rashford, 1702 minutes, and Jesse Lingaard, 1367 minutes), United's Academy sealed their dominance over the English footballing landscape by having no less than 35 players ply their trade in the First Division.
Apart from the United boys themselves, Bournemouth's star turn Joshua King (2,721 minutes), Leicester's Danny Simpson (2,990 minutes) and Danny Drinkwater (2,466 minutes), West Brom's Johnny Evans (2,638 minutes) and their captain and United favourite Darren Fletcher (the highest of the lot with 3,225 minutes) all played a major role in boosting the minutes. (as did Five Sunderland players - John O'Shea, Donald Love, Paddy McNair, Darron Gibson and Adnan Januzaj)
Fun Fact? The United academy graduate with the lowest number of minutes this season - Angel Gomes, with four minutes (2 in stoppage time), is the first player born in this millennium to play Premier League football... feel old yet?
