As long as the academy continues to make money, it will be maintained and even encouraged.
I know that this isn't the answer that romantics (including me!) don't really want to face but it is the truth - and 'the truth', said Mr Dylan, 'don't need you to make it true'.
Manchester is a big place and, by sheer weight of numbers, will continue to produce many excellent footballers. They won't all be attending City's academy, though. That's the pity of it - but it is the way of the world.
If you (God forgive me but I'm going to say it...) were, by some accident of birth (or some such thing) a rag fan for the past twenty/thirty/forty years and your son (of average to good ability, let's say) was getting admiring glances from both City and Them say, about five years ago... would you have encouraged him to join your beloved reds, where he'd have to compete with schoolboy signings from the world over and then (if he's lucky!) get to try and fight his way past the latest multi-million pound signing - or would you have swallowed your pride and packed him off to City, where Stuart Pearce was fielding teams full of academy products and imports signed at a grand cost of about £10m in total?
The answer to that dilemma is one major reason why City's academy has been so successful over the last few years. It'd be niave to think otherwise. Now, it's going to count against us.
It's a no-brainer. You'll give your kid a chance before anything that you hold dear (unless you're an idiot). City fan or not, you'll do your best for him. And, depending on his ability, sending him off to City's academy may not be doing that in years to come. It's a price of success, I guess. Not very palatable, though, is it?