Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted that Manchester United's youth system has not lived up to its reputation in recent years, but he anticipates that things will soon improve.
The Scot, who nurtured the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs through the clubs's academy, blames his recent failures on legislation.
Ferguson has long been a vocal critic of the '90-minute rule', which the Football League clubs voted to abolish in October.
The rule stipulated that clubs could only sign players to their academies who lived within a one-and-a-half-hour commute.
He told FIFA.com: "It became physically impossible to find six or seven players a year so close by, we decided to change the priorities of our scouting system.
"As a result, we started to bring in very talented players from abroad and we've had success that way.
"In terms of developing players from within the club, it's been a long time since we produced a player of David Beckham's calibre."
The United boss is hopeful, however, that the change to the Elite Player Performance Plan scheme will vastly improve the standard of the club's youth intake.
He added: "The legislation changed again a short while back and it'll be like it was 15 years ago.
"I'm very optimistic we'll be able to get the production line we had in the past going again."
Ferguson celebrated his 70th birthday in December.
Robert Summerscales
