Manchester United's academy has always been the beating heart of the club.

United's academy continues to be at the forefront of youth development in 2024 and it has given something fans to be proud of in a challenging season for the first-team.

The Under-18s have enjoyed an outstanding campaign and have won three trophies, beating rivals Manchester City to two, which made the victories even sweeter.

"It's been a collective effort," Travis Binnion told the Manchester Evening News. "Adam Lawrence and his staff deserve a lot of credit for this season, but we stick to the mantra of a single pool of players for the different youth teams and I really think we've done that."

Binnion is the Under-21s manager but has the official title of head of player development and coaching, which means his remit goes beyond overseeing that age group.

The 37-year-old won the FA Youth Cup in 2022, coaching a special group of players that included the likes of Alejandro Garnacho, Kobbie Mainoo, Willy Kambwala and Dan Gore, and has become a key figure in an academy that's considered among the best in world football.

Binnion spoke to the MEN in November to reflect on the halfway point of the campaign and he kindly sat down again to discuss the end of the season for the academy. The success of U18s was the conversation's starting point and Binnion admitted there are similarities between the current crop and his team that won the FA Youth Cup.

"I think Louis Jackson is the only player to play in both and I was speaking to Jacko and his dad the other night about what a couple of good years he's enjoyed," said Binnion.

"There are definitely some similar traits between those teams and I think any successful side must have goals, a competitive spirit and some really good players. This season's U18 side has some real high-potential players and both groups have that in common, as you'd expect from us."

There have been five players from the FA Youth Cup winning team in 2022 to have been given senior debuts by Erik ten Hag and Binnion is confident the current U18 crop will produce more debuts - Ethan Wheatley has already been handed his in - in the near future.

"Garna, Kobbie, I believe Willy Kambwala, will play a lot of football for us. I think debuts are one thing, but sustained impact is another and I believe that will happen with this cohort.

"We expect it to happen, we don't just think or presume it will, but there's an expectation within the academy staff and club that it will happen. I think with that comes a bit of pressure to make sure they're good enough and the debuts under Erik ten Hag haven't been easy debuts.

"There's been a lot of players training with the first-team and involvement in squads, but there haven't been loads of debuts, so what I'm saying is, training is one thing, but him putting you on the pitch is an indicator of whether he thinks you can help him and are good enough."

Binnion continued: "I look forward to working with any players as long as they have the right attitude. Usually, our kids' attitudes are good and part of coaching is working between the ears, so making sure the environment is right, the attitude is right, and they're focused.

"But like you alluded to earlier and with the Youth Cup team of two years ago, there's a lot of good kids in there, who rub off on each other and want to be successful. As long as you have that, with an aligned group of staff, players will maximise what they're capable of."

Binnion coached Garnacho and Mainoo to Youth Cup success and both have established themselves as first-team regulars this season, performing well in the Premier League.

Garnacho has started 37th successive games and his durability at 19 years old hasn't gone unnoticed. Binnion has watched him develop from a fresh-faced teenager who arrived from Atletico Madrid in 2020 to someone the first-team has relied upon to produce big moments.

"I think his dependability is the greatest quality he's added," Binnion said. "As a young winger coming through and in his first 20 games, I was watching and wondering what we'd get out of possession, which was fine, but we knew there were high-level moments in there.

"Whereas now, I watch his pressing, tracking, positioning; durability and his robustness, and I think that's where the growth of his game has been. He still needs to do more in possession and he'll be aware of that, but look at how he did against Ben White the other day.

"His end product needs to be greater, but I thought he got the better of that duel and he's fazed by not going back the full-back at the first time, he'll just keep going and trying."

The league campaign has now finished and Mainoo made 24 starts. The youngster has started almost every game in 2024 and his breakthrough must be celebrated.

"The way Kobbie plays the game is the way you coined it, a breath of fresh air," said Binnion. "There is zero fear, he's really composed and has good all-round game understanding, so he's never going to be terrible in a game of football because he's too bright and too smart.

"He'll be more successful on some days than others, but am I surprised at his development? I'm not surprised at what I'm seeing, but how quickly he's got there and how he's established himself is naturally surprising because it's really hard to do that. That's the only surprising aspect

"How he's handled it and how he's playing is not a surprise and I think his mentality is why he can take it in his stride. Yeah, results have been up and down, but he's been a constant within good and poor performances, so he's learning and getting that extended run of opportunities.

"When he gets a chance to sit down and reflect on this season, he'll think about what has and hasn't gone well and what he needs to do better because he's a really bright lad. He's unassuming, smart and he'll only continue to get better, I've got no doubt about that."

You get the impression when talking to members of academy staff they genuinely care about players and Binnion was at Wembley for Mainoo's debut for England.

"I went to the Brazil game, I went down to Wembley with my little boy when he made his debut," he said. "I wasn't sure he was going to play, but I wanted to be down there anyways.

"I thought in the Belgium game he was their best player. Do his England performances merit him being in the squad this summer? I think yeah and I think his consistent performances for us in a difficult season bode well for him contributing toward a successful England team for sure. I'm not Gareth Southgate, but I'd be surprised if he's not on the plane to Germany."

"Even with loans you've mentioned [Will Fish, Alvaro Fernandez, Joe Hugill and Radek Vitek], the perception is they've been successful because they've played or their team has done well, whereas some lads who have left on loan and haven't played appears really bad," he said.

"But it makes them realise where they're at. Some boys are playing higher-level games and of course, we'd like them to all be successful, but I think realistically we know they're not going to be and they can't be because we're not putting a gun to the heads of the managers.

"We don't say 'you must play our players'. I know that does happen, but I don't think that's healthy and we'll continue to review each loan we do and analyse what happened.

"We'll think that wasn't great because a player had three managers, but could we have foreseen that? No, OK, that team played that way, it suited that player, would we do that again?

"So it's a reflection and planning for next year's loans is what we're in control of and we'll endeavour to get it right. It's been a real mixed level of success and that's ok.

"I think sometimes people are too ready to say a loan has failed and suggest a player isn't good enough. A lot of loans at a lot of clubs aren't successful, particularly the first ones.

"That doesn't define how successful a player's career will be or how successful his next loan will be, so we make sure we're aware of why something happened and put it right."

The MEN interviewed United youngster Will Fish in March and he spoke with great maturity. Impressively, the centre-back has made over 40 starts for Hibernian and has loved his time in Scotland, which has seen him play regular first-team football at a competitive level.

Sources indicated his loan was 'very successful due to the volume of games played and against decent level of opposition' and Binnion reiterated that message.

"Will's undoubtedly for me been our most successful loan and you could argue that's been the case for two years and he's going to get the rewards from that," Binnion said.

"People are aware of how well he's doing. What I would add is that Will's first loan at Stockport wasn't good in terms of minutes and exposure and then his start at Hibernian was tough.

Fish has loved playing for Hibs. "Who's to say he'd have that success without the learning from the first period? I think he's a great example of the loan system and it's a testament to him. When you say he's gone under the radar, I think it's because he's quite low maintenance and profile as well.

"He's a great kid, he just wants to play football and have success. Hierbnian have been great for him, so he's in a really good place and there's a lot of interest in him for future loans and coming back with us, the manager will have another look at him and see how he's progressed."

United recently made an academy visit to France and played behind-closed-doors friendlies with Monaco and INEOS-owned Nice, whom a partnership is being developed with.

"I know conversations with Jason Wilcox and Nick [Cox] are ongoing and obviously there's a lot of knowledge there to share," said Binnion about the impact of INEOS.

"We went to Nice and played out there, we know what their expectations are and what resources they have and that can only be a good thing. Their standards and expectations are really high, they're fully in support of what we do and acknowledge that we do a lot of good things.

"They want to keep supporting that and ultimately help us continue what we've been doing, which is maximising individual's potential to play in our first-team and wider.

"The statistics that came out last week that showed the most Premier League minutes by academy players is further validation of the work we're doing. We'll keep moving forward and I can only see INEOS helping that, so we're excited for the future with them onboard.

"We had some real high potential younger players and U19s who have had tough seasons with injuries on that trip to France and it was great to have that group together.

"It was away from the spotlight, good training, a nice part of the world, a new partnership with INEOS and we played Monaco as well, who historically we have a good relationship with. To go there and play two completely different sides was fantastic and we hope to do it again."