Do not loan out Diaz and Foden

[MarsLlama]

If we loan him out, he will be sold the season after. You know how it works.

Angus Gunn, Pablo Maffeo, Angelino, Enes Unal... the list is endless.

Diaz is good enough NOW, never mind loaning him out. The kid has magic in his boots and if we tried to perservere and find a pathway for him and Foden, we will reap the benefits in the long term. Utd showed Rashford a pathway, Liverpool showed Alexander Arnold a pathway, reaped the benefits. If we keep loaning players out, we will never be able to keep hold of our academy players because they will do exactly what Sancho did. Sends out all the wrong signals for me.

I love the attitude he has shown to the top bosses at City. He has made it clear he is here to fight for his place and break in this star studded City team. Elite mentality.

As much as I'm not a fan of Rashford he got two goals on his debut and two more against Arsenal in a big game a few days later. Díaz is yet to grab a senior goal or assist for us. I think they're too different to compare.

 

[Delphinho]

Díaz has had chances in the first team, not too many but more than most. He's not done enough with them to convince most fans and apparently not enough to convince Pep either. If his entourage believe he deserves more gametime, when he's up against Sané, they're deluded. If he were to leave this summer I wouldn't be bothered and I imagine he'd end up in La Liga's midtable somewhere.

Foden is a whole different story. Every time he plays he looks confident, comfortable, productive and capable of contributing. He looks like a part of the team where Díaz looks like an extra limb that the others have to find a way to work with. If we don't give Foden a decent chance then it'll be a disgrace.

Hard to impress when he`s subbed on with 5 minutes remaining, the match is already won, and everyone just plays it backward and want the ref to blow the whistle

 

[BlueMoonRisin’]

Hard to impress when he`s subbed on with 5 minutes remaining, the match is already won, and everyone just plays it backward and want the ref to blow the whistle

I agree, needs some proper game time to assess him.

 

[FantasyIreland]

To be fair Khaldoon has pretty much said the same in his interviews

I know,and it does.However,no kid has yet ticked all the boxes that makes them worthy of a frequent first team place.

Hopefully Foden or Diaz will change that if they knuckle down and prove they cant be ignored.Pep,khaldoon,or anyone else at the club,will not forfeit an advantage simply to allow the shoehorning of a less talented kid on the basis that its the right thing to do.That would make no sense.

 

[Marvin]

Why should it?

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.

 

[Marvin]

I know,and it does.However,no kid has yet ticked all the boxes that makes them worthy of a frequent first team place.

Hopefully Foden or Diaz will change that if they knuckle down and prove they cant be ignored.Pep,khaldoon,or anyone else at the club,will not forfeit an advantage simply to allow the shoehorning of a less talented kid on the basis that its the right thing to do.That would make no sense.

Maybe that Goal article was misleading and inaccurate but the way I read it was that Diaz wants an opportunity to play with the City first team whereas City would prefer to send him on loan so the decision is imminent i.e. we are past the time for knuckling down to work, or that period is very limited indeed.

I hope Foden and Diaz star in pre-season and make the decision easy.

 

[teddykgb]

I would like to see them both olay regularly this season. I wonder how many City fans would accept the resulting loss of points and title jeopardy. There just are no easy matches in the league and the title winners recently are losing so few matches that it is becoming harder and harder to blood youth while mounting a title challenge. I’d like to see us try, though, especially with Foden as a ball playing CM can mean so much to the club. I worry about Diaz size but we will always be linked with tricky attackers whom we can buy. Local boy Foden playing in CM for his club would be a tremendous inspiration for the entire EDS

 

[FantasyIreland]

@Marvin

Great reply,alot of thought and effort has gone into it.However i see that as an ideal,something we can create once we are entirely established as a world force that will not be shifted.As a club we are still in our infancy and right now circumstance dictates we cannot take our eye off the prize.Making room for youngsters that arent talented enough to maintain the standard does not fit into that reasoning.

Dont get me wrong though,i would love us to be the club you describe.

 

[Sir Joe Aguero]

If Foden goes, shut the Academy down. The kid is magic.

 

[domalino]

As much as I'm not a fan of Rashford he got two goals on his debut and two more against Arsenal in a big game a few days later. Díaz is yet to grab a senior goal or assist for us. I think they're too different to compare.

Pretty hard to compare as Rashford was given a start in a European game, and then an FA Cup tie. Fully backed in an otherwise full strength side.

Brahim's only ever been given 1 start, and that was a league cup game which Pep made 11 changes to the starting line up. That's it. In 2+ years around the first team.

It's a repeating theme. Our kids never get a real chance, just the occasional token game while 8,9,10 first team players are benched. Other clubs throw someone in the deep end and the kids rise to the occasion.