87 | James McAtee 2025/2026

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I don't get why people don't want him to go. Palmer was already showing glimpses of being a great player with us, starting and affecting some very important games when we sold him. Also he was 21, not 23 like McAtee.

There hasn't been one minute that McAtee has played that I think is at the standard of a starter for us. People criticize Doku and Savinho all the time, but they are both younger, much better overall and their quality in Rennes and Girona was much higher than McAtee at Sheffield.

Again, he is 23, he is 1 year away from prime age, and I think he is far, nlt only from our quality, but from the quality of any of the top 6. He might have a decent career in a Brentford level team, but I would be incredibly surprised if we ever regret his sale.
 
franksinatra said:
For me If we had to, I would sacrifice Gundogan. It looks great on paper but It’s unlikely Rodri can play every week and besides Reijnders, all the other were here last year and most considered the lack of mobility a key issue in midfield.

Cherki and Echeverri I would say play different roles, off the striker, and O Reilly might be ahead of him at left back but never even made the U21 squad let alone captain the side.
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We are supposedly changing formation this season so he's going to get even less minute out on the wing. O'Reilly has played more minutes under Pep albeit at leftback so Nico has more versatility & would probably be Alt Nouris' understoody
 
city warrior said:
I don't get why people don't want him to go. Palmer was already showing glimpses of being a great player with us, starting and affecting some very important games when we sold him. Also he was 21, not 23 like McAtee.

There hasn't been one minute that McAtee has played that I think is at the standard of a starter for us. People criticize Doku and Savinho all the time, but they are both younger, much better overall and their quality in Rennes and Girona was much higher than McAtee at Sheffield.

Again, he is 23, he is 1 year away from prime age, and I think he is far, nlt only from our quality, but from the quality of any of the top 6. He might have a decent career in a Brentford level team, but I would be incredibly surprised if we ever regret his sale.
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He’s 22 no matter how many times you state otherwise, and players are not in their prime at 24. He went back to Sheffield United because he knew he needed to develop physically and that would only happen in the Premier League, not in the Championship. He’s got the natural talent and will hopefully have a fruitful career.
 
Damocles said:
He's too good to sell and not good enough to play for us.
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That's the problem with like 96% of them.

The standouts we will keep like Foden, Bobb, Nico O'Reilly, but there will be the ones that get away because they want their glory day earlier and don't want to wait to develop like Sancho, Lavia and Palmer.
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
That's the problem with like 96% of them.

The standouts we will keep like Foden, Bobb, Nico O'Reilly, but there will be the ones that get away because they want their glory day earlier and don't want to wait to develop like Sancho, Lavia and Palmer.
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Cuts both ways. We’ve dropped over a hundred million pounds in the last six months on four players aged 21 and under, not one of whom had a full season of consistent work under his belt. When clubs are turning to younger players, I can well understand an academy player wanting to seek his ‘glory day’ elsewhere, and that means there’s likely to be more escape the net.
 
Gabriel said:
Cuts both ways. We’ve dropped over a hundred million pounds in the last six months on four players aged 21 and under, not one of whom had a full season of consistent work under his belt. When clubs are turning to younger players, I can well understand an academy player wanting to seek his ‘glory day’ elsewhere, and that means there’s likely to be more escape the net.
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I suspect Mukasa will get his shot with the team. Maybe McAidoo too.

If anything the new class of players seem to be better than the McAtee/ Palmer/ Lavia/ Delap class.
 
Blue_Lightsaber said:
I suspect Mukasa will get his shot with the team. Maybe McAidoo too.

If anything the new class of players seem to be better than the McAtee/ Palmer/ Lavia/ Delap class.
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You’re setting the bar high. Three of them are likely mainstays in one of Europe’s top teams, and one has already been the country’s top young player. :-)
Part of the problem, for me, is that operating with a squad of 17 ‘real’ players made it almost impossible for more academy graduates to contribute. If we now start using a slightly larger number of players, with greater rotation, better use of the bench, and no more holy cows, then Mukasa, McAidoo, and those who follow might just have a fairer crack.
 
I don't think he's shown the level of palmer or even O Reilly tbh, selling is the right decision and if he pops off we have a buy back. He would get 0 minutes next season.
 
Cheadle_hulmeBlue said:
Other top clubs seems to do it. I’d argue we’ve spent huge amounts of money on players who have been quite average as well, when we had more talented youngsters

Obviously only one or two will make it, but currently it’s impossible for any young player at city. We don’t seem to know how to develop our own youngsters
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Other top clubs have not won anything like as much as we have.

Plus did you miss Foden, Lewis and O'Reilly?
 
bert38 said:
He really grew into the tournament-always seems like he needs more self confidence-he's a fantastic player.

That turn on the half way line last night, wow!

Knitted the whole game together for England last night-perhaps should've scored 3/4 goals in the tournament but his play was so neat and calm. Needs to go and play games to fulfill his potential.
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I agree. He was the boss in that Eng team.

I think for some reason he is not confident at City. I really like him as a player and I think he deserves to go somewhere and get stuck in.

Would be great if he clicked here but he is 22. Deserves a good go.
 
dave_blue12 said:
Other top clubs have not won anything like as much as we have.

Plus did you miss Foden, Lewis and O'Reilly?
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Putting trust in our amazingly talented youngsters isn’t going to hurt us. We probably would still win trophies with some of them getting more minutes. Playing say Oscar Bobb more could actually improve us for example

Did I miss Lewis and Oreily? They aren’t regular first team players and chances are this season they could get less game time with our new signings. The only player we’ve actually brought through as a regular is foden. I think that’s pretty poor considering how good our youngsters have been.
 
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Cheadle_hulmeBlue said:
Putting trust in our amazingly talented youngsters isn’t going to hurt us. We probably would still win trophies with some of them getting more minutes. Playing say Oscar Bobb more could actually improve us for example

Did I miss Lewis and Oreily? They aren’t regular first team players and chances are this season they could get less game time with our new signings. The only player we’ve actually brought through as a regular is foden. I think that’s pretty poor considering how good our youngsters have been.
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Okay you carry on believing you know better than our greatest ever coach.
 
city warrior said:
I don't get why people don't want him to go. Palmer was already showing glimpses of being a great player with us, starting and affecting some very important games when we sold him. Also he was 21, not 23 like McAtee.

There hasn't been one minute that McAtee has played that I think is at the standard of a starter for us. People criticize Doku and Savinho all the time, but they are both younger, much better overall and their quality in Rennes and Girona was much higher than McAtee at Sheffield.

Again, he is 23, he is 1 year away from prime age, and I think he is far, nlt only from our quality, but from the quality of any of the top 6. He might have a decent career in a Brentford level team, but I would be incredibly surprised if we ever regret his sale.
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I half agree with this in that don't think he's shown enough to stay here and it's time he moved on. He's behind a lot of players that are currently better than him.

But I reckon if he picks the right move, goes and plays regularly in a decent team that suits him, then he has the ability to reach a very high level. He'll never get the regular football here though.

It's okay, every player has a different path and develops differently.

Pretty sure he'll end up playing for England and in the CL.
 
Kippax Street 1880 said:
McAidoo is mint, absolutely electric
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Genuine, curious question. Have you been along to see him play? (Or watched full matches on the OS?) I honestly know almost nothing about him. What are his strengths?

Remember — as I'm sure you do — that there are a number of players who look absolute mustard at EDS level. Simply, when we're talking about City's first team, we're talking about breaking into what has been unquestionably one of the top three or four club sides in the world over the last seven years or so (they were the best club side in the world in the 2022-23 season, no reasonable argument about it). Many are called. Few are chosen.
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
A credit to the Academy but the standards are simply too high for City to be challenging for the elite trophies with McAtee featuring regularly

He'll be 23 in October and he can't be a peripheral player forever. A move to a club that can guarantee more football (plus a decent fee for City) will suit everyone
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Yes, hopefully abroad with a decent sell on.

Thought he was very good in the Final, bar his finishing. Chuffed to bits that a Manchester City player was Captain of an England U21' Trophy winning side though.
 
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