Good question.
This is just my opinion as a fan as to what the aims and objectives of City's Football Academy should be:
Primary goal
To develop and nurture young footballers for the first team of Manchester City.
I don't mind how City are successful. Does it matter whether the player who scores the winning goal comes from Wythenshawe or Buenos Aires, but having a strong Academy has advantages:
1) It's another way of recruiting players for the first team. You can develop a way of playing throughout the age groups that should in theory make it easier for the players to transition into the first team. Certain teams like Barcelona have a very well known way of playing, and I hope City are doing the same.
2) You can plan ahead. The age profile of the first team is a given. In 4 or 5 years time X, Y and Z will be past their best. The academy can be used as a way of managing playing resources
3) It creates an identity. You look at the World Cup. There are teams like Croatia which are not particularly outstanding players, but they play absolutely to their maximum because they are intensely proud of their background. We all know that last season, what made City a special team was that never say die attitude. If you have players who have grown up with City, it is easier to foster than sense of belonging.
4) It creates a connection with the fans and the City which produced the club.
5) I think it would improve the first team, by providing the energy and dynamism of youth. Older players can start taking life for granted. We can all think of players whose goal it was just to play for a top side, and as soon as they got here, they played like a shadow of their former selves.
6) You give young players a visible pathway to first team football it will improve the Academy no end.
7) Hope lifts people. Spirit and mentality counts as much as innate talent. Innate talent is nothing unless the individual applies himself and people do that when they can see that if they do work hard they can achieve something.
I am sure this is just the start.
Secondary goal
To produce an economic return for the football club, which I believe it is already beginning to do. You have to get the balance right though. If young prospective players see that the club is just going to farm them out to satellite clubs and does not have a record of progression through to the first team then the talent of the future intake will drop and they will go elsewhere where they believe they have a better chance of development.
Anyone who wonders what I am on about should consider Kylian Mbappe. He had all kinds of offers as a young player but chose Monaco because he believed that he would get opportunities there in the first team.
