87 | James McAtee - 2024/25

[Norman kneejerk]

Be surprised if we made the squad even smaller after what's just happened with injuries.

 

[OntarioBlue]

How has he gone from being the Salford Silva to not being able to get a game even when half the squad is injured ?

 

[Delphinho]

Good enough to play regularly for a handful of PL sides. Wouldn’t blame him if he left. I find it very hard to understand how he’s only got 1 minute of PL football given the state of our midfield this season. Start him in a near full strength team, where the stakes are higher than in a rotated side for a Carabao cup game, and you’ll see a different player

 

[Norman kneejerk]

How has he gone from being the Salford Silva to not being able to get a game even when half the squad is injured ?

You would hope we took note of how well a lot of the players do after leaving, they are not exactly difficult to spot but that doesn't seem to deter us.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

It must be disappointing for the player, on the one hand to receive acknowledgement of his ability from Pep, and yet not get selected for any meaningful time on the pitch.

I see this as a potential on-going problem for young players, but the club seem to accept it and appear happy with the sales with potential add-ons, so my opinion is not going to change that stance.

Pep isn't going to change. Using a very small squad is his preferred option.

It must be very hard to see a future at our club for the younger players.
Apart from Palmer, you have Harwood Bellis and Morgan Rogers getting an England call up, Gittens, Lavia, Doyle and several others getting regular game time.
If we had held on to one of Callum Doyle, Kabore or Yan Couto, it would have given us a little more cover for our ageing and more injury prone back line.
The probability is that if they were still here they would be in the same

 

[Gabriel]

No point in allowing him to leave. He signed up for the season knowing game time would be precious but that the learning experience would be invaluable. The mooted fee feels ridiculously low.

For me, he should be playing on the right and partnered with Doku on the left. Similarly, Grealish should be partnered with Savinho. Partnering Doku and Savinho may well be exciting but it’s also prone to us losing the ball more. We desperately need Foden/Bernardo/de Bruyne to control the middle spaces and McAtee could offer greater balance on the right; after all, he played much of last season there for Sheffield United.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

He’s going to end up being another palmer, , Lavia, Rogers or Delap. We could save ourselves 50m here, but we have no patience and want ready made players. He hasn’t been given a chance at all.

Our record with young players recently has been poor in my opinion. It’s been all about making profit, but we’re producing some of the best players for other clubs now in my opinion. Players that would be in our first team.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

He’ll leave next summer and end up going to the World Cup with England.

 

[domalino]

He is behind them but he still should get minutes. Bournemouth away is a game he should have featured in even if 15/20 mins as a sub. There have been other games too.

He’s about 100 minutes behind Grealish for playing time this season. He’ll probably end up with 1200 minutes by the end of the season if we have a decent fa cup run which is roughly what Foden, Rico and Bobb clocked up in their first season with the first team.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

They'll jump on him, if there's any truth to this.

 

[franksinatra]

West Ham according to all the recent press and at 20m

At that price he will have a que of clubs wanting him.

Sold for 20m in the summer and valued at 60/70 million plus a year later.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Sold for 20m in the summer and valued at 60/70 million plus a year later.

Yep you can see it now. We’ll sell him and then we’ll probably be lacking a player exactly like Mcatee. We’ll then need to spend another 60m, when we already had someone…

 

[franksinatra]

He’s going to end up being another palmer, , Lavia, Rogers or Delap. We could save ourselves 50m here, but we have no patience and want ready made players. He hasn’t been given a chance at all.

Our record with young players recently has been poor in my opinion. It’s been all about making profit, but we’re producing some of the best players for other clubs now in my opinion. Players that would be in our first team.

The frustrating thing for me is we have a great complement of midfielders but some of them look tired/ out of form or both and the midfield as a whole looks like it lacks legs hence our struggles in transition.

Even if it can be argued McAtee is not as good as the other midfielders I think he offers us a skill set we don’t have currently, legs, enthusiasm and motivation.

It seems a win win by giving him more minutes. More down time for the established players and more development time for McAtee. Even if he was first choice sub for Haaland, say when we’re leading 2 or 3 goals to the good the extra midfielder would give us more control to see the game out and give Haaland a break. It seems a no-brainer for me from every possible angle to give him more game time.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

The frustrating thing for me is we have a great complement of midfielders but some of them look tired/ out of form or both and the midfield as a whole looks like it lacks legs hence our struggles in transition.

Even if it can be argued McAtee is not as good as the other midfielders I think he offers us a skill set we don’t have currently, legs, enthusiasm and motivation.

It seems a win win by giving him more minutes. More down time for the established players and more development time for McAtee. Even if he was first choice sub for Haaland, say when we’re leading 2 or 3 goals to the good the extra midfielder would give us more control to see the game out and give Haaland a break. It seems a no-brainer for me from every possible angle to give him more game time.

I agree, it seems a no brainer. Our midfield looks tired and out of form and he could make a difference. I can’t see it happening though, Pep seems so reluctant to give our young players a chance. It’s usually because injuries or because we have to (that’s what it feels like to me)

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

The frustrating thing for me is we have a great complement of midfielders but some of them look tired/ out of form or both and the midfield as a whole looks like it lacks legs hence our struggles in transition.

Even if it can be argued McAtee is not as good as the other midfielders I think he offers us a skill set we don’t have currently, legs, enthusiasm and motivation.

It seems a win win by giving him more minutes. More down time for the established players and more development time for McAtee. Even if he was first choice sub for Haaland, say when we’re leading 2 or 3 goals to the good the extra midfielder would give us more control to see the game out and give Haaland a break. It seems a no-brainer for me from every possible angle to give him more game time.

tbf the only game in the prem we did lead by 3, he was put on for Haaland as soon as we got a 3 goal lead.

 

[franksinatra]

tbf the only game in the prem we did lead by 3, he was put on for Haaland as soon as we got a 3 goal lead.

I sort of knew someone would post that and you are quite correct. But history, with other players, suggests that will be the exception rather than the rule over the course of this year. Hopefully I will be wrong though and that precedent will continue.

 

[Gaz (FMwkdsoul)]

I sort of knew someone would post that and you are quite correct. But history, with other players, suggests that will be the exception rather than the rule over the course of this year. Hopefully I will be wrong though and that precedent will continue.

Yeah, pep's record ain't great and we are racking up numbers either. Doubt we see him much till next season at best.

 

[Tevez City]

He should watch (Made in Belgium) documentary to learn from Kevin's experience.

 

[decmancity]

He’s going to end up being another palmer, , Lavia, Rogers or Delap. We could save ourselves 50m here, but we have no patience and want ready made players. He hasn’t been given a chance at all.

Our record with young players recently has been poor in my opinion. It’s been all about making profit, but we’re producing some of the best players for other clubs now in my opinion. Players that would be in our first team.

Palmer is the only one who when he left has immediately kicked on. I don't think it's a coincidence that he was the one who spent the most time around the first team at City and when going to Chelsea, has found it a lot easier to stand out because most of their team was crap last year.

Lavia, had some half decent performances for Southampton but he was in a relegation team. Been a permanent crock for Chelsea since.

Rogers and Delap had several loans, didn't impress on any of them. It's not always linear progression but very few can say they saw these levels of performances coming since then. Especially Rogers. Delap always looked a handful enough that if he got some service he could score goals.

I want McAtee to play as much as anyone but we have to trust he's just not doing enough for Pep. Right or wrong, that is the reality. Pep will have no problems playing the young lads if they make it impossible to ignore.

If McAtee goes to West Ham and tears it up then good luck to the lad, but he is behind several top class players here and he won't be at West Ham, that alone is making it much easier to stand out.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Palmer is the only one who when he left has immediately kicked on. I don't think it's a coincidence that he was the one who spent the most time around the first team at City and when going to Chelsea, has found it a lot easier to stand out because most of their team was crap last year.

Lavia, had some half decent performances for Southampton but he was in a relegation team. Been a permanent crock for Chelsea since.

Rogers and Delap had several loans, didn't impress on any of them. It's not always linear progression but very few can say they saw these levels of performances coming since then. Especially Rogers. Delap always looked a handful enough that if he got some service he could score goals.

I want McAtee to play as much as anyone but we have to trust he's just not doing enough for Pep. Right or wrong, that is the reality. Pep will have no problems playing the young lads if they make it impossible to ignore.

If McAtee goes to West Ham and tears it up then good luck to the lad, but he is behind several top class players here and he won't be at West Ham, that alone is making it much easier to stand out.

I agree, lots of these players did need loan moves and regular game time. Now they’ve got that it’s clear they are good enough for city, they just needed a chance. I think they were probably always talented enough

I’m not sure I agree with your point about pep playing them if they make it impossible to ignore. Other than foden it’s seemingly impossible for our academy players to become regular first team players. Lewis is on the way, but I reckon if walker was fit, he’d be playing less ( just my view).

I’d argue some of our ex academy players are better than what we currently have. Lavia for example would be brilliant in the middle. I’d take palmer over Doku as well. It’s all ifs and buts rights now.

I do think Mcatee deserves a chance, considering how poor our midfield has been