The future of Manchester United is certainly bright with their under-18 side winning the FA Youth Cup against Nottingham Forest.

They won 3-1 at Old Trafford and were perhaps inspired by the wise words of Cristiano Ronaldo.

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A crowd of 67,000 fans were in attendance as starlet Alejandro Garnacho guided United to a 3-1 victory over Forest at the Theatre Of Dreams.

One of the 17-year-old’s goals saw him win and convert a penalty for United to see them on their way to victory, before disappearing to the corner to replicate Ronaldo’s famous ‘Siuu’ celebration.

Plenty of United legends, past and present, were in attendance to watch the youth team secure the prestigious FA Youth Cup.

Among them was club captain Harry Maguire, David de Gea, Bruno Fernandes and Scott McTominay, while icons Sir Alex Ferguson and Bryan Robson were also in attendance.

However it was a pre-recorded video message from CR7, played before the youngsters took to the field, that really got pulses racing in Travis Binnion’s dressing room.

As quoted Rising Ballers, he said: “Good luck tonight boys, I’m proud of you and I’ll be watching the game. You have done yourself and your families proud.”

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Ronaldo is clearly an inspirational figure for the young talent at Old Trafford, but the first-team are ‘lost’, according to former assistant Rene Meulensteen.

He told talkSPORT Breakfast: “There were a lot of expectations, even from myself. When Ronaldo comes in, he comes in for one reason only and that’s to improve the team and basically get United challenging again.

“They were second in the league, so no reason to believe anything else.

“For some reason there was that lack of consistency at the start of the season and performances started to fall away. 

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“The season has been derailed more and more. You saw the frustration kick in when they got knocked out of this competition, then they got knocked out of the FA Cup, then they lost ground in the league.

“They changed managers against and Rangnick came in.

“Rangnick’s impact has not brought what everyone expected, to push for the top four and Champions League is so important. They have been derailed and irritation has turned into frustration.

“When I see United play, I see a team that is lost. They are lost completely. There is no cohesion, no organisation, no structure, any basic thing that you need in any successful performance is not there.”

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