Sacked, resigned, quit - Man City loan problems keep on coming

Manchester City had high hopes for some of their most promising youngsters but their loan moves have been challenging

Manchester City are going from strength to strength under Pep Guardiola but their loanees look more like Sideshow Bob in a field of rakes. Every move that is made sees more pain.

It was an important summer for the Blues in terms of their emerging talent. A number of excellent youngsters have come into the first team picture over the last 18 months and that raised the stakes for finding loan moves. With the standard required, it was necessary to go outside of the City Football Group.

Three of their most promising loans have already hit serious roadblocks though with managers changed within the first three months of the campaign. If City were aiming for stable environments for their youngsters to thrive in, they haven't got it right.

Claudio Echeverri's move was delayed over the summer because of how much he impressed first team staff after joining the squad in February. Guardiola gave him his debut in the FA Cup final and he also looked good in the Club World Cup before getting injured.

He was announced with great fanfare in Leverkusen and given the No.9 shirt, only for Erik Ten Hag to be sacked after just three games. Not that the change has really mattered because Echeverri has barely played since; his only three starts have been against PSG (a 7-2 defeat where he was subbed after 45 minutes), Bayern (a 3-0 defeat where he was subbed after 57 minutes) and Benfica (a 1-0 win where he was subbed after 57 minutes).

City have been monitoring Echeverri's minutes with some concern for weeks, and if the player wants to feature with Argentina at the World Cup in summer he may have to move again in January for more minutes.

Things have hardly been better for Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, the academy defender who made his senior debut last season and earned a season-long loan at Celtic. He didn't even make the squad for the Champions League qualifier that saw Celtic exit at the hands of opposition from Kazakhstan, and was then left out of the Europa League squad by Brendan Rodgers.

Amid an awful start for the Bhoys, manager Rodgers resigned in October and was replaced by Martin O'Neill. Simpson-Pusey started his first league game of the season at the weekend and will hope for more opportunities under the new manager, but it hasn't gone the way anyone wanted it to.

Completing the set is Sverre Nypan, the exciting Norwegian talent who quickly got into his stride at Middlesbrough. The 18-year-old hasn't played every game or been consistent throughout, but has shown enough flashes of quality to excite locals in a team currently sitting second in the Championship.

However, Nypan's circumstances will change after the international break because Boro manager Rob Edwards has quit in order to join Wolves. The teenager will still hope to show his quality but his fortunes are now in the hands of somebody different to who City expected them to be when they sent him there in the summer.

There is a long time to go in the season, but it hasn't been the start that anybody wanted for some of City's most promising talent.

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