82 | Rico Lewis - 2025/26

Cheadle_hulmeBlue said:
Well said. Some of our fans have lost all patience with our academy players. If they have a bad spell, which they will or they aren’t world class instantly… they’re not good enough.

He’s a brilliant young player and I think people have forgotten that. Brilliant news if he’s signing a new contract
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I think a few forget that most of the best players we've had - the ones who stamped their authority on games - were nowhere near as young when they arrived. Rico was 19 at the start of last season, and still played 3000+ minutes.

Silva, Aguero, Rodri, De Bruyne were all either 23 or 24 when they joined the club.

He may not make the leap to being a key, long term player for City, but so far, for his age, I've always been impressed.
 
bluenova said:
I think a few forget that most of the best players we've had - the ones who stamped their authority on games - were nowhere near as young when they arrived. Rico was 19 at the start of last season, and still played 3000+ minutes.

Silva, Aguero, Rodri, De Bruyne were all either 23 or 24 when they joined the club.

He may not make the leap to being a key, long term player for City, but so far, for his age, I've always been impressed.
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Agreed.
 
Tugay One Cup said:
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"some manager" lol
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Some PL titles missing there
 
oldius said:
The players that Chelsea are now paying 40m - 60m for were ours before they developed into what they are now. Just allow talent to develop, recognising that 20-year-olds are not the best version of themselves that they will ever be. And yes, I absolutely believe that he is good enough to play with us.
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I totally get what you say about allowing players to develop but it is tricky to do so without selling them. I was fine letting Delap and Rogers go and (at the time) was happy with the Palmer fee although he had started the season well so the indications that he was about to blossom were there. Selling Lavia whilst buying Kalvin-Phillips seemed daft but he was not ready to be backup DM which was probably the only way we could have got him to stay. If he was not so injury prone he probably would be "the one that got away" but as it is we probably did well to move him on as I doubt he will play more than 20 games a season.

Chelsea seem a basket case of a club with recent transfers but at least it seems to be a meritocracy. Delap knew that if he did well the first choice striker position was up for grabs. That would not be the case at City no matter how well he did.

I am pretty certain that McAtee will move to a mid tier or German team next season and then move on to somewhere like Chelsea the following one.

I am grateful for City's success under Pep and co. but being someone who takes an interest in the youth teams it is a bit disheartening see so few players make the jump to established first teamers when some undoubtedly had the talent to do so.
 
jamesha said:
I totally get what you say about allowing players to develop but it is tricky to do so without selling them. I was fine letting Delap and Rogers go and (at the time) was happy with the Palmer fee although he had started the season well so the indications that he was about to blossom were there. Selling Lavia whilst buying Kalvin-Phillips seemed daft but he was not ready to be backup DM which was probably the only way we could have got him to stay. If he was not so injury prone he probably would be "the one that got away" but as it is we probably did well to move him on as I doubt he will play more than 20 games a season.

Chelsea seem a basket case of a club with recent transfers but at least it seems to be a meritocracy. Delap knew that if he did well the first choice striker position was up for grabs. That would not be the case at City no matter how well he did.

I am pretty certain that McAtee will move to a mid tier or German team next season and then move on to somewhere like Chelsea the following one.

I am grateful for City's success under Pep and co. but being someone who takes an interest in the youth teams it is a bit disheartening see so few players make the jump to established first teamers when some undoubtedly had the talent to do so.
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My point was and is about the impatience of our fanbase.
We hear people complaining here about teams like Brighton and Bournmouth finding gems. We hear here complaints about players we let go, AND we hear complaints about players like Rico.
Unless we allow players to develop as they play, we will always be spending on expensive imports and watching our players develop elsewhere. Developing as they play means accepting their strengths and accepting their weaknesses, and allowing the odd mistake. Young players make them.
You make some really good points here.
 
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I see glimmers of talent occasionally but this lad is never a right back in a million years so unless we give him game time elsewhere then I don’t see the benefit in this at all. Same for O’Reilly. Never a left back.
 
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:
I see glimmers of talent occasionally but this lad is never a right back in a million years so unless we give him game time elsewhere then I don’t see the benefit in this at all. Same for O’Reilly. Never a left back.
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His best position is in midfield, but Pep seems to favour him at right back.
 
Withnail said:
His best position is in midfield, but Pep seems to favour him at right back.
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I only see him as a midfield player but whether he is good enough in that position at the very top level is debatable. Time will tell. Same with O’Reilly. At least these two didn’t cost us anything though. It’s the other ones I’m more concerned about, particularly the January signings
 
King Jay said:
The some wasn’t meant to be pep it was meant for the next manager but of course it’s being taken out of context. No criticism allowed. All hail Pep. Let’s open a cult.
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No instead let's criticise the greatest manager in the history of football and pretend you have any intellectual merit to do so
 
So far, my favourite of the ways we played in these CWC games has been the 433 with narrow wingers, and all 3 midfielders deep as well. Then use 2 wide fullbacks.

This has worked quite well for us last season as well.

Lewis would be a good rotation option as the RCM here imo, along with Bernie.
 
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:
I see glimmers of talent occasionally but this lad is never a right back in a million years so unless we give him game time elsewhere then I don’t see the benefit in this at all. Same for O’Reilly. Never a left back.
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First team experience and maturity while allowing them to develop AT CITY into their long-term preferred positions, into which it would be impossible to beat out the current first (and maybe second and third) choices would be a simple one.

How do you develop a decent midfielder in this team, where the midfield is full of established internationals? You get them on the field in a dual role of FB and inverted midfielder, in order to gain the needed experience at the apex of men’s game, in the most successful team of the decade…or loan them out or ship them out with a buyback at double the fee once they’ve made good!

I’d prefer it if younger players had some trust in both the club and their own abilities, but it seems like if you’re “only” earning £25,000 per week at City and “only” getting minutes in Cup games and the odd PL cameo as a late game sub, then you start itching to leave.

I think that’s misguided.

Stay, learn your trade while training with the best, and see where that takes you into your early 20’s. If you’ve not made the breakthrough you need by 24-ish, then, by all means, fill your boots elsewhere!
 
King Jay said:
The some wasn’t meant to be pep it was meant for the next manager but of course it’s being taken out of context. No criticism allowed. All hail Pep. Let’s open a cult.
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Well, the "inverted fullbacks bullshit" was also garbage, because it's won us loads and been copied by loads of other managers since, so...
 
Not sure why he’s get an extension. Logically where are his mins coming from
As things stand we have a bloated squad
even after it’s trimmed down
We get a RB and Nunes would be back up. He’d be 3rd choice
Rodri Reinjders Kova OR Nico G are all ahead of him in the 6/8 position
Cherki Foden Echeverri Bobb Marmoush are all ahead of him in the 10 position

He’s good in tight spaces but his physical limitations and lack of attacking ability makes it pretty hard to justify his place here.

Someone once said he’s struggle at any club that doesn’t have Pep. And I can understand why they would say that. He wouldn’t thrive in a physical side like Newcastle or a counter attacking side like spurs. So where can he go ?
 
Withnail said:
His best position is in midfield, but Pep seems to favour him at right back.
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I think Pep is trying to recreate the Lahm thing with Rico but the issue here is that before Pep reinvented Lahm, he was already a top tier footballer. He needs to give the Rico project some more time or else he would end up like Flanagan and a few other promising young fullbacks who eventually amounted to nothing. At this point, a loan could even do wonders for Rico's career
 
If we hope to win the C/L - as best club in the world - we need to compete with PSG - who are the best club in the world - by far IMO.

So we have as our preferred backs:
Ait Nouri and Matheus Nunes/Rico Lewis versus Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi.

This highlights our need to upgrade at RB and LB and I hope illustrates why relying on Nunes/Lewis or some sort of makeshift RB as our first choice starter against top sides immediately disadvantages us.

And lest you complain that I'm cherry picking positions - go on through the starting lineup, PSG versus us.

PSG is arguably better or clearly far better at almost every position and all of their players are pacy, able to high-press and win the ball back, and are excellent at both attack and defense.

We're way behind PSG - and Rico Lewis at RB - or indeed any position on the pitch - is worsening the gap between our sides.
 
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