Man City would send the wrong message with Rico Lewis transfer

Rico Lewis is the subject of interest from Nottingham Forest but Manchester City must guard against the message they are sending out with a sale.

Rico Lewis was all smiles after City won at Wolves, but then made it clear he wants to stay at the club

Having lauded Manchester City's strategy of selling academy graduates and bringing in significant funds in the process, it could be considered slightly hypocritical to warn against them flogging another. But then, Rico Lewis' case feels a lot different from those who have gone before.

In recent years, City have become the masters of selling young players. Already this summer, they have brought in close to £30million from the sales of Jacob Wright to Norwich City and Yan Couto to Borussia Dortmund. That is good money for two players who never cracked the first team at the Etihad.

James McAtee's move to Nottingham Forest was confirmed on Saturday, bringing in another £30million. McAtee's situation is slightly different, and there are plenty who would have liked his case to work out a little differently.

The 22-year-old did make 34 appearances for the club, but only nine were starts. Making just three Premier League starts last season, when the team had its share of difficulties, confirmed to McAtee that he was never going to get the chance to break through at the club he had been with since the under-11s.

That probably swings the argument for McAtee's sale. Again City have brought in a good fee for him and you could argue that they have all but offset the signing of Rayan Cherki, a year younger than McAtee, by selling the latter to Forest. That is clearly good business.

But there has to be a line somewhere, and selling Lewis as well would cross it. The 20-year-old should be one of the jewels of City's academy and the first player to really make the breakthrough into the first team since Phil Foden.

He is five games away from a century of appearances for his boyhood club, and of his 59 games in the Premier League, 40 have been starts. His style of play is also the essence of what City have wanted from academy players since the Pep Guardiola era began.

Lewis demonstrated just that against Wolves on Saturday, starting at right-back but with the positional intelligence to drift into midfield and the technical excellence to thrive in possession. Yes, he had a difficult second half of last season, but he wasn't alone in that. It was also the first time he had ever been part of a team that had lost its way.

Speaking after the win at Molineux, he made it clear he didn't want to leave City, calling it his "dream club" and saying he didn't see himself playing anywhere else. But Forest's interest isn't a shot in the dark, and they have had encouragement somewhere along the way that a deal is possible.

It's certainly true that City need to sell in the next couple of weeks. Guardiola again reiterated that he had too many players at the weekend, and you would expect at least two or three departures before the window shuts, if not more.

Selling Lewis might not have been on the agenda at the start of the summer, but if others are proving harder to shift, it has become an opportunity that was explored, at the very least.

But selling Lewis and McAtee in the same window would send out the wrong message, not just externally but internally as well. Those 16, 17 and 18-year-olds looking to make the breakthrough would see the direction of travel, where academy youngsters are sold rather than given the chances their talent deserves.

In fairness, James Trafford has returned this summer, and Nico O'Reilly will get chances in midfield after excelling as a makeshift left-back last summer. But Trafford could find his route to be No. 1 complicated by a move for Gianluigi Donnarumma, while O'Reilly has significant competition in the middle of the pitch.

For young footballers, making the grade at City has always been a demanding task. This is one of the best squads in the world, being guided by the best manager in the world. You have to be exceptional to be in that 25-man squad.

Lewis fits into that category, though. Aside from a dip last season, he has regularly shown he has the quality to be part of the picture at City. Letting him go just to reduce the squad's numbers would be the wrong message, and City must be mindful of that if Forest firm up that interest with a serious bid.

Their academy strategy has been excellent in recent years, but the first team always needs that homegrown connection in it. Letting Lewis go would certainly stretch it.