7 hours ago
54
Manchester City's biggest sale this summer might yet be James McAtee, the 22-year-old academy graduate who cracked the fringes of the first team but found he could go no further.
His performances for City and his displays as England Under-21 captain this summer have given him plenty of options and clubs in England, Germany and Italy would be willing to spend £25million to land him.
He does have first-team experience, but there are plenty of City academy graduates attracting sizeable transfer fees even without the CV that McAtee can point to. City's academy continues to be a money-spinning venture that offsets a sizeable chunk of their investment in more established first-team players.
Already this summer, City have raised around £8million from the sales of Jacob Wright to Norwich City and Farid Alfa-Ruprecht to Bayer Leverkusen. Neither could make it to the first team at the Etihad, but both have attracted reasonable transfer fees, with sell-on clauses inserted that result in more profit flowing into the Etihad in years to come.
One key reason that buying clubs continue to invest in academy graduates coming out of City is that those players are doing well when they move. The majority of them go on to have success once they are exposed to first-team environments, which shows that the professionalism, discipline, and technical skills being taught at the Etihad Campus are working.
Three transfers this summer might end up proving the point. Liam Delap left City for Ipswich Town last summer after clocking just 170 first-team minutes. He immediately found his feet in the Premier League. His 12 goals for the relegated Tractor Boys earned him a £30million move to Chelsea.
James Trafford never made a first-team appearance for City before moving to Burnley, but he has gone from strength to strength with the Clarets and looks set for a move to Newcastle United this summer for a fee of more than £30million, having recently broken into the England squad.
City will earn profit from the moves involving Delap and Trafford, having inserted sell-on clauses in their moves to Ipswich and Burnley, but they won't make any money from Jamie Gittens' move to Chelsea. He is another example of a City youngster moving on to make an impact elsewhere, however, having shone for Borussia Dortmund before his Premier League return.
There are many more examples. City knew they had a player in Cole Palmer, but they didn't expect him to immediately hit the levels he has done for Chelsea. Romeo Lavia has excelled on the journey from City to Southampton to Chelsea.
The success stories of academy graduates moving on and excelling speak volumes for the academy at City. It shows that first-team-ready players are being developed at the club, even if they find the standards in Pep Guardiola's squad just a little too high. It is encouraging that so many of these players are going on to have good careers in the game.
It shows buying clubs that they can have faith in the players they are pursuing, even if they don't yet have first-team experience, and that is partly why the Blues can continue to attract such good fees for their young talent.
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