Louis van Gaal's legacy? A crop of Manchester United youngsters that Mourinho would have left to rot

Daniel Sturridge is a fortunate bloke.

Had he not curled home a delicious goal in the Europa League final, his place in Roy Hodgson’s final 23-man squad for Euro 2016 might be in jeopardy.

The reason: Marcus Rashford. The 18-year-old has emerged as a viable alternative, with the breakthrough act hugely impressive for Manchester United at Wembley before his premature departure.

The debate has raged for weeks. Is Rashford really ready to step up to international football? The sane answer was meant to be ‘no, don’t be ridiculous’. But given how seamlessly he slotted into an FA Cup final, you have to wonder whether it’s time to believe the hype.

The statistics are good, but don’t make overly impressive reading: eight goals in 18 games. But his unflappable swagger, a desire to run at defenders and his rare gift for holding up play as a slight teenager, make him stand out so young.

It won’t be long before Jesse Lingard earns his first international cap, either. His rocket will go down as one of the great cup final goals, not just because of the sweet strike, but because it consigned a trophy-less post-Fergie spell to history.

And it’s all thanks to one man: Louis van Gaal.

For all his faults – and there is a bottomless list, if you listen to most aggrieved fans – LVG has always insisted on promoting youth. It’s led to some awkward moments. For every Rashford and Lingard, there is a Tyler Blackett and a Paddy McNair. But you don’t know until you trial them and, in amongst the turgid and directionless displays, it has helped keep part of United’s identity alive.

Would Jose Mourinho, who everyone but the Dutchman believes is taking over, really have trusted an 18-year-old in an FA Cup final? Would he have swapped a £37.1m signing for a 23-year-old, who had spent the previous three seasons in the Championship with four different loan clubs, as Van Gaal did when goalscorer Juan Mata was hooked for Lingard? Would he hell.

That doesn’t mean kids always win stuff. And it doesn’t make Mourinho bad. ‘The Class of 92’ doesn’t arrive in every generation. But United are desperate to swerve becoming a soulless club – just look at the furore when Danny Welbeck was shipped off to Arsenal.

Had Mourinho taken over in the festive season – when Van Gaal was as short as 1-50 to get the boot – we would never have heard of Rashford. Lingard would be back in the Championship. Even Anthony Martial might struggle for game time.

That’s not to say Mourinho won’t trust the current crop of youngsters. Just that he probably won't.

One look at his record says everything about his treatment of young players, and it's a record that should make United very wary. The Portuguese boss only tends to stick around for a few seasons, so long-term strategy doesn’t really enter his thinking. Fifteen years of management; 23 academy players handed debuts; and that's even before you note the jettisoning of talents such as Kevin de Bruyne, shipped off despite Chelsea then brining in a succession of underwhelming players all intended to fill similar roles. It’s not promising.

If we thought the Euros were monumental for Wayne Rooney and his bid to keep the United captaincy, imagine how crucial they are for Rashford. Unless he returns a national hero – and he’s not even guaranteed a spot on the plane, let alone a substitute appearance – he looks destined to be pushed aside by Mourinho in favour of a multi-million pound signing. Again, that’s not necessarily a terrible thing – it’s unlikely he’ll fire United to the Premier League next season – but he has already earned the right to better treatment than he'll likely receive under the new regime.

“It is a policy of this club to play with youth players,” Van Gaal mused at a surprisingly subdued press conference deep in the bowels of Wembley. Had he been informed? Was this a swipe at Mourinho?

“When you see our season,” he continued, “with 14 injuries in November-December, and all the full-backs injured, how can you solve that? You can’t solve that.

“I took the risk to not sign a player at the time. Instead, I took [Cameron] Borthwick-Jackson, [Guillermo] Varela and Timothy Fonsou-Mensah [from the academy]. I have taken a risk and now I can be happy because we have won something, but it is a very difficult decision to do that.

“I gambled with youngsters. I felt we needed the spirit of the youngsters.”

There he sat, freshly-engraved trophy obscuring his suit, defending his record. Blame the media all you want, it’s United who have handled the whole affair disgracefully. Where was the support during his six months of humiliation? Where was the effort to conceal the Mourinho news, at least for longer than 30 minutes?

Van Gaal’s clinched United’s first FA Cup in 12 years, but it wasn't the squad’s senior statesmen who have salvaged pride. Instead it was the young blood: Anthony Martial, Rashford, Lingard. They propelled United to the trophy.

So put aside any lingering resentment for the Dutchman. He’s made Mourinho’s job significantly easier. The squad is buoyant again; the club has some emerging stars. It’s down to the new man to not wreck his fine work.