Euro chasing Brentford show no mercy as Amorim's gamble on youth backfires

YOU can't win anything with kids - not for about the last 30 years, anyway.

- BY MIKE WALTERS

And as Ruben Amorim decorated the road to Bilbao with the ruins of Manchester United's 16th Premier League defeat this season, former Match of the Day pundit Alan Hansen's famous soundbite proved devastatingly accurate.

Don't fall for any salesmen's patter about this being a seven-goal thriller.

Brentford put the third youngest line-up in Premier League history to the sword to keep the Bees on the scent of honey in Europe next season.

Three years ago, in a prologue to his rancorous exit, Cristiano Ronaldo threw a monumental strop when unlamented interim manager Ralf Rangnick dared to substitute him here.

Seven months later, Erik ten Hag's reign was almost stillborn when United shipped four goals in the opening 45 minutes here, a debacle which led to Harry Maguire being stripped of the captaincy.

And now, with one foot in the Europa League final, Amorim risked further ignominy by making eight changes. There is nothing wrong with promoting youth, and nobody does it better than the club who gave us the Busby Babes and the Class of '92.