Fergie expects youth improvements

The emergence of the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Gary and Phil Neville in the mid-90s was a high point for United's production line but it has since struggled to find youngsters to match them on a regular basis.

Ferguson believes changes in the rules made that impossible - particularly the '90-minute rule' that stated young players had to live within a given proximity to the club.

But Ferguson hopes new plans to ease those rules will help him discover more future stars for the Red Devils.

"A few years ago the requirement was brought in that you could only sign young players that lived within an hour-and-a-half radius of the club's headquarters," he told FIFA.com

"It wasn't like that before, which was how we were able to sign such fantastic young lads.

"It became physically impossible to find six or seven players a year so close by, we decided to change the priorities of our scouting system. As a result, we started to bring in very talented players from abroad and we've had success that way.

"But it's true, in terms of developing players from within the club, it's been a long time since we produced a player of David Beckham's calibre.

"But the legislation changed again a short while back and it'll be like it was 15 year ago once more, so I'm very optimistic we'll be able to get the production line we had in the past going again."