The Premier League is notorious for not giving young players enough opportunities, but Manchester United and Southampton defied the pattern in the 2021-22 season.
The Saints take pride in promoting young players into the first squad, and in 2021-22, they played more teenagers than any other Premier League club.
Tino Livramento, who has made 24 Premier League appearances since joining from Chelsea last summer, was accountable for the majority of those minutes.
In reality, the teenaged right-back accounted for 2,202 of the 2,222 minutes played by Saints juveniles this season, with Chelsea loanee Armando Broja filling the remaining 20 minutes before turning 20 near the start of the season.
Despite having a difficult season, Manchester United backed their youth, with more than two teens accounting for 1,527 minutes.
Anthony Elanga barely turned 20 in late April, so he spent the most of his 2021-22 Premier League minutes as a teenager, while United also granted 19-year-old Hannibal Mejbri and 17-year-old Alejandro Garnacho game time.
However, a handful of teams offered adolescents far fewer minutes than would have been expected. Arsenal only had a youth on the pitch for 137 minutes, while Chelsea's lauded academy produced no adolescents who made the Premier League first squad.
Burnley, Leicester, and Newcastle, for example, did not field a youngster in the Premier League in the 2021-22 season.
Leeds United, on the other hand, gave teenagers 1,073 minutes as a result of major injuries to their first team, necessitating back-up. Joe Gelhardt and Sam Greenwood both turned 20 during the season, but they already made an impact.
So, how do the clubs fare in the 2021-22 Premier League when it comes to the quantity of minutes allotted to teenagers? They are listed in order of how long they took from first to last.
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