Paul Scholes believes that Manchester City have overtaken Manchester United when it comes to attracting and developing young players.

Scholes, a graduate of the class of 92 along with Gary Neville, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt, made 718 appearances for United and won 11 Premier League titles but also expressed fears that the club’s current crop of youngsters are not up to standard.

On Monday, City unveiled their new £200m state-of-the-art academy with the right-back Pablo Zabaleta acknowledging the club’s poor record of developing young English players since Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008. According to Scholes, though, United have fallen behind their neighbours.

Writing in his column for the Independent, Scholes said: “The buzz in Manchester is that it is City now who have the better academy programme. That it is City who are getting the better players in the local area.”

While United have spent big since the arrival of Louis van Gaal, breaking the British transfer record to sign Ángel di María, a raft of injuries has also provided youngsters such as Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett with first-team opportunities but Scholes questioned whether they were likely to have established careers at the club.

He added: “Some of the current lads who have been promoted, such as Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett, have benefited from an injury crisis but will they be there in the long term?”