prove it at the best club then. Not at a club where your best hope is to be sold back to us. If he believed he was that good, he'd say "fuck Kun and Jesus, I will make it", have signed a contract, gone to the US and bagged some of the chances Kun and Jesus missed. He can go and define whether he lives to regret that.But Sancho believes he's in that tiny minority. He's been voted the Golden Player of the Euro U17s, previously won by Rooney, Fabregas, Kroos and Gotze. And if City want to have a really world class academy, we'll hopefully be producing more players in that tiny minority who have the potential to go on to be some of the world's best.
I think that's bollocks, particularly to be given a chance here or there. Barker, at his best in the academy, was every bit as good as Sancho is now IMO and certainly deserved a few first team opportunities. Same with Denayer when he returned from Celtic on a par with Virgil van Dijk and signed up to a long term contract.
I'm a huge admirer of Pep but feel he could have done more last season with young players and should make a similar long term commitment to the club that he's expecting academy players to make. If Sancho signed up for 3 years then Pep's gone when he's coming to the end of that if he doesn't renew.
prove it at the best club then. Not at a club where your best hope is to be sold back to us. If he believed he was that good, he'd say "fuck Kun and Jesus, I will make it", have signed a contract, gone to the US and bagged some of the chances Kun and Jesus missed. He can go and define whether he lives to regret that.
That argument would work if the teams coming in for him were a bit shit, but they're not. Monaco, Dortmund and Spurs have all had the better of City in the CL or Premier League in the past few seasons. It's no different to Fabregas winning Player of the Tournament at the 2003 World U17s and ditching Barcelona for Arsenal because he thought his path to the first team would be better there. He was playing very regularly for Arsenal by the 04/05 season (aged 17) and the youngest midfielder to get La Liga minutes for Barcelona that season was Iniesta (aged 23). Should Fabregas have stayed at Barca and competed with Iniesta, Xavi, Ronaldinho and Deco for minutes?
But Sancho believes he's in that tiny minority. He's been voted the Golden Player of the Euro U17s, previously won by Rooney, Fabregas, Kroos and Gotze. And if City want to have a really world class academy, we'll hopefully be producing more players in that tiny minority who have the potential to go on to be some of the world's best.
I think that's bollocks, particularly to be given a chance here or there. Barker, at his best in the academy, was every bit as good as Sancho is now IMO and certainly deserved a few first team opportunities. Same with Denayer when he returned from Celtic on a par with Virgil van Dijk and signed up to a long term contract.
Which game would you have done that in? We did in the Carling Cup... we lost to United to grease their path to a trophy they laud over us. We didn't have a single easy opponent in the FA Cup. We barely scraped into top 4 and could have only given up one or two points in the process. Every game was competitive. It's not like Bayern who have the league sewn up for months, or a Spanish or French team that have a number of easy opponents. Which game should Pep have played more kids in?
Fabregas proved himself, fair play. Sancho wouldn't get in Arsenal or Barca's team, and it's not Henry/Pires Arsenal either. He would struggle to depose Mbappe or Falcao, no chance against Aubameyang and Leipzig are a one season wonder and would sell him on. The physicality and fitness within football has moved on, the money has moved on and the risks to clubs has hugely increased.
I do agree that good young players need to be tested and its the continual testing at higher level that helps them progress, otherwise they tend to rot on the vine so to speak.
That being said coming from our under 18`s who play virtual none contact football isnt ideal, thats why we try to send them out to be tested in a more physical league.
Last season we had seasoned professionals struggling in our defence certainly no place throw inexperience youngster either for them or or team striving to get in to Europe
Sancho would get first team opportunities sooner at both Arsenal and Barca than he would at City. Iwobi and Munir were getting semi-regular minutes aged 19 at both respectively. I'd say Roberts is more talented than both and he's unlikely to get as many chances as they did at City this season despite being a year older and much more experienced at first team level than they were.
He's not a striker so I'm not sure why you're making those comparisons. At Monaco he'd have been up against Lemar, a £3.4m signing from Caen, and at Dortmund Guerriro and Pulisic got plenty of minutes on the left flank (although Reus admittedly had the position held down). Leipzig are Germany's equivalent of Monaco - buying cheap talent and developing it. I wouldn't be surprised to see them get a CL spot again, especially if they can keep hold of Keita.
I agree with most of that, including that it's easier to try out attackers than defenders. Nor do a disagree with loaning players out, but we have to give players a decent shot if they've excelled on loan and developed physically. Else why is it worth young players staying at City?