Man City have done what they were criticised for not doing last season

Manchester City have seen players thrive after leaving in recent seasons and James Trafford could have been another sore spot

Morgan Rogers has become a stick to beat Manchester City with

Activate the buy-back clause. Words that aren't often spoken at the City Football Academy, but maybe times are changing with Hugo Viana.

Txiki Begiristain became the king of academy transfers, ensuring that Manchester City got maximum value for players at every stage of a sale. There would often be a considerable up front fee to pay for one of City's young talents and further opportunities for income would be in sell-on and buyback clauses.

For years, it has been the sell-ons that have been the real earners. The Blues got over £10m from some individual sales and that practice has not stopped; there is a 50 per cent clause in the £5m deal that took exciting winger Farid Alfa-Ruprecht to Leverkusen.

For a long time, City have seemed to have had the best of all the deals they have done. For example, they have banked tens of millions from transfers involving Jadon Sancho while his career has failed to hit the heights it could have done, and even after allowing Cole Palmer to leave Oscar Bobb scored a pivotal goal as City won a fourth Premier League title in a row.

Last year, City's transfer supremacy started to be stretched though as the team form dived. Palmer continued to excel for Chelsea, Julian Alvarez hit the ground running at Atletico and there was more. Former City youngsters Morgan Rogers and Liam Delap began tearing up the same league that the Blues were sinking in.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and Rogers in particular is a great case study. Middlesbrough fans couldn't believe their luck when Villa came in for Rogers when they did and Bournemouth supporters were agog at the price from what they had seen, yet everything came together for the player under Unai Emery and he has blossomed into a brilliant talent.

When Rogers is powering his way through a City midfield that is lacking the exact qualities he has though, that hindsight comes across as pretty feeble. Part of the pain for Guardiola last season was seeing his own team suffer while players they had let go thrived.

One of those was James Trafford, who was starring in the league below as part of a Burnley team who broke a number of defensive records on their way back to the Premier League under Scott Parker. There wasn't a time when Guardiola was asked why Trafford hadn't been brought back, but that could have happened this season.

Newcastle were close to signing Trafford this summer after strong interest for a while, and had he settled and started impressing in the same division as City the goalkeeper would have become the latest question mark over the club's recruitment policy.

He hasn't simply been brought back to the club to shut down those critics, but it shouldn't hurt them to finally do what they were looked down on for not doing last season.

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