Pemberton’s final chance to showcase Blades’ kids

The former Blades defender has been linked with the vacant manager’s job but already has one of the most important jobs at Bramall Lane.

Appointed academy director last summer, Pemberton has the responsibility for developing players who, in years to come, can either save or make the club money in the transfer market.

Pemberton has also led the club’s Under-18s to the two-legged final of this season’s FA Youth Cup which kicks off tonight against Manchester United.

Over 30,000 tickets have been sold for the first leg at Bramall Lane with the return leg on Monday night.

For Pemberton, who started his career at Old Trafford before being released at the age of 18, the game brings a certain irony.

But this final is all about the future not the past and Pemberton, now 46, says the future can be bright at Bramall Lane.

Although the Blades suffered the nightmare of relegation from the Championship, a host of teenagers played in the final weeks of the season prior to the departure of manager Micky Adams.

Defender Harry Maguire and striker Jordan Slew were the most impressive with Matthew Harriott, George Long and Terry Kennedy getting involved in the final game of the season against Swansea City.

When Pemberton originally joined the Blades during the Dave Bassett era, the first team was awash with homegrown talent.

The production line dried up during the tenures of Neil Warnock and Kevin Blackwell as manager but, according to chairman Kevin McCabe, the Blades are determined to put things right now.

Pemberton said: “We have not got silly money to spend any more so that will put a little bit more pressure on the academy. That’s the way it is but, since coming here, I have always said that I wanted to see more homegrown kids in the first team.

“It’s what struck me when I first came to this club as a player,” he recalled. “There were plenty of local boys in the first team – Dane Whitehouse, Mitch Ward, Jamie Hoyland, Carl Bradshaw – and playing for this club really meant something to them. That’s what I am trying to put back into the club. Hopefully now, instead of bringing in loan signings to sit on the bench, we will blood more young ones.”

Pemberton shares the view, again expressed by McCabe last week, that the Blades also need to ditch their reputation as ‘long-ball’ merchants and play simple, cultured football instead.

“If playing the long-ball game or playing ‘hoof’ football was the right thing to do, all the best teams in the world would be doing it – Barcelona, Manchester United, Arsenal – but they don’t,” he said.

“I know my job doesn’t rely on getting three points on a Saturday – my job relies on how many players I can get in and around the first-team squad.

“We have changed a lot of things relating to the structure of the academy since I came in and the biggest change has been in the philosophy. I don’t want any of our boys to be embarrassed with the ball at their feet. I want the players to be able to deal with the ball.

“So we give them an understanding of the game and make them technically better so they can pass the ball from A to B without giving it away or kicking it into the stands.

“It’s not easy playing ‘simple’ football,” he adds. “There is a lot of hard work involved and you have got to have a lot of options. But that is the route we are going down and I fully support that.”

The Blades have never previously reached the final of the FA Youth Cup but Pemberton was on the books at Yorkshire neighbours Leeds United when they lifted the trophy under Paul Hart in 1997. It was during that final period of his playing career that Pemberton took his first steps into coaching, forging a relationship with Hart which later brought success at Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace.

“I smashed my knee at Leeds and had to pack the game in so I started working with the younger players to get my coaching badges,” he recalls.

“They had a great youth team with players such as Harry Kewell, Jonathan Woodgate, Stephen McPhail, Paul Robinson and Alan Smith.

“I then spent 14 years at Nottingham Forest doing the Academy with the likes of Michael Dawson, Jermaine Jenas, Andy Reid and Marlon Harewood who are still playing at the highest level. Knowing that you have been involved in the process of their development is what gives you the buzz.

“It’s not difficult to put young boys in a first team,” he added tellingly.

“The hardest thing is giving them the tools and the mentality to stay there. It is good to see young players progressing – but they also have to be nurtured, put in and brought out at the right times.

“That’s what I will be behind and I am sure the new manager who comes in will do the same.”