31 May 2025 10:00:30
PSG, ourselves and Man U, amongst others all chasing 17 year old prospect Franco Mastantuono with a reported £38 million fee. The "buy young and potentially save millions in the future" model is catching on and will be the future. Where does it end? Liverpool about to splash £100 plus million on Wirtz who looks some player but is quite frail in build and whilst I'm sure he will bring a lot to them there are of course no guarentees, think Havertz who was touted as a generational great not that long ago. Saudi offering £100 million for Bruno F who is proven and experienced but not much future value at 30 plus years old. How much would Saudi pay for the likes of Salah or our own Moises? The money in football is now so far removed from your everyday fan it is becoming silly.
31 May 2025 10:42:04
RPD
you are correct about clubs going after youngsters particularly from Douth America however it's mostly to supplement an experienced squad.
Secondly, I believe the Douth Americans are catching on and even their valuations are shooting up now.
I really believe a good academy is the way forward and i know we have one of those already in place.
31 May 2025 18:48:40
Bill, it’s getting boring, I agree with you. The academy is huge hugely important. Our academy players were excellent when given game time in the Conference League.
31 May 2025 21:58:01
Rpd are you the same that was rbd or are you stole his poster name also I like chelsea a lot but you are extreme on it.
01 Jun 2025 00:36:54
RBD “extreme” that’s a novel description. Long may he or she remain extreme.
Bill you are absolutely correct, a top academy is very important for the clubs future. I do have a problem in recruiting young players from across the world but I sadly excuse that concern just on the basis of it being a competitive market. I know that’s not very satisfactory reason.
01 Jun 2025 07:14:44
I had thought RBD quite a different poster in style and content to RPD.
01 Jun 2025 08:11:21
Hi tomb sorry no harm think there is posters that have more post names and keep it secret and no harm toward rpd I think he is very passionate which is good but maybe bias like me.
01 Jun 2025 08:23:28
I never even noticed the “one” letter difference in the names.
02 Jun 2025 11:11:45
Bill, RE: your comment on good academies 'i know we have one of those already in place', it remains to be seen if we do actually still have a good one in place, as we've just this season sacked the two people who made it a good one.
02 Jun 2025 11:13:56
Maybe we just hook straight up to the City academy – our manager is a former City academy manager, and this summer we're continuing the trend of buying their former academy products with Delap and apparently Gittens (with Palmer, Lavia and Tosin already at the club, and Sancho having been at the club this season) . It does feel a tad pointless producing our own talent if we're just going to sell them on in order to purchase former City players for higher fees.
02 Jun 2025 11:23:37
Depends who the better players are. I guess that’s the job of the coaches and SD’s.
We haven’t produced anyone better than Palmer or Lavia.
Tosin was a free transfer and Sancho a loan with an option.
02 Jun 2025 11:46:27
In the entire history of the academy, Tom? What about Musiala? Arguably currently a much better player than either of those two. What about Reece? Further back, what about Terry?
(I agree that Palmer has been excellent, and that Lavia could also be amazing if he gets over his injury issues – though I guess you'd actually class him as an Anderlecht product as he apparently only joined City at 15.)
02 Jun 2025 12:22:32
EdW, I never mentioned the “entire history” of our academy and we sold loads of academy players under the previous ownership.
My comparison of Palmer and Lavia is a current comparison not an historical comparison.
02 Jun 2025 19:43:37
Sorry Tom, you can see my confusion. What you said was 'We haven’t produced anyone better than Palmer or Lavia' when what you meant was 'We haven't produced anyone better than Palmer or Lavia in the positions those two players play in to coincide exactly with the need for those players in the team'. Although, as I say, I think Jamal Musiala is a better player than Palmer, and arguably Declan Rice is currently a better player than Lavia (and before you say it, yes, I'm aware we lost both those players during the previous ownership of the club) .
02 Jun 2025 20:53:10
EdW, you read my mind. The interesting thing is there was very little noise about us selling or players leaving after refusing contract extensions under the previous ownership. The big difference was probably the success we had under that ownership.
03 Jun 2025 08:45:41
I seem to remember there was a lot of focus on the loan system we had in place under RA, and the lack of players from the academy who would actually make it through to the first team. To be fair, we've had more academy kids come through since the 2019/ 20 transfer ban than we had in the entire first period of RA's ownership, even if some of those were just to be sold (Tomori, Livramento, Hall in particular) . The quality of players the academy was producing seemed to really go up in the 2010s – your Michael Olises, Marc Guehis and Tariq Lampteys are a far cry from your Scott Sinclairs, Jack Corks and Jon Harleys.
03 Jun 2025 11:29:06
Edw, judging from the outside it took some time for the substantial RA investment to show dividends and that’s reasonable as it was always going to a lag situation.
So many academy players have left over the last 20+years and generally it’s only with the benefit of hindsight that we have regrets.