Former Manchester United midfielder Keith Gillespie has claimed that the Class of 92 saved the Red Devils a great deal of money by going onto produce the goods for the senior team.

In the early 1990s, a group of youth team players including Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes all came through the club's academy at the same time before breaking into the side's first-team.

Gillespie was also a part of that exciting crop of players, having joined the academy as a youngster. He went on to make 10 first-team appearances, prior to moving to Newcastle in 1994.

Gillespie recently sat down with GIVEMESPORT to reflect on that iconic period for United.

He said: “It was an incredible side, we are talking nearly 30 years ago, people are still talking about that side. And I suppose before that, people used to talk about the ‘Busby Babes’, talking back in the 50s then. So it took a good sort of 30-35 years for another big crop to come through.

“In terms of bringing youth through, they brought Ryan Giggs through as well, Ryan Giggs was part of the youth side when we won the Youth Cup.

"You look at how much money that club saved in terms of what they got out of those players. Giggs, his whole career there, Scholes his whole career there, Gary Neville, what they got out of David Beckham, what they got out of Nicky Butt, absolutely incredible.

"So it just goes to show how well Alex Ferguson done in terms of when he came into the club, he restructured everything and he put a lot of emphasis on youth and it obviously paid off."

It is hard to argue with Gillespie's point. The likes of Giggs and Scholes would go on to make up the fabric of the United's team for the next two decades, and they did not cost the club a penny in terms of transfer fees.

This then allowed Sir Alex Ferguson to focus on adding superstars of the game to complement the young players over the years, signing the likes of Eric Cantona, Rio Ferdinand and Cristiano Ronaldo, whilst still keeping a number of the players from the Class of 92 as vital members of the squad.

It's a strategy that paid off handsomely, as United won 13 titles in the first 21 years of the Premier League era. And which two players were there in 2013 to lift the trophy once more? Giggs and Scholes.