Manchester City Focus on Academy Overhaul to Produce First-Team Players

According to senior sources, Manchester City believe it would take their football academy about three years to start producing players for the club’s first team on a regular basis. Until then, the English club still regard graduates as a valuable resource, especially considering the fact that the Premier League market is expected to shrink over the upcoming years.

Since Manchester City have made a major restructuring of their academy, the 19-year-old Kelechi Iheanacho has become the only young player who has really managed to make a breakthrough. These setbacks have made Premier League club aware of the fact that they have made a reputation of an elite club, who however, have no traditions in promoting their own players to the first team.

According to sources and media reports, the executives of Manchester City are still relaxed about the situation. In addition, they consider more radical approach as unrealistic to actually start quickly producing first-class players who would instantly fit in the squad.

The truth is that the English club have borrowed a lot of ideas from La Liga’s Barcelona and have done their best incorporating the good practices within their ranks. In addition, Manchester City have used some Blaugrana’s officials such as Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, who are considered experienced enough in order to be helpful to an overhaul in the squad. Moreover, they are aware of the fact that such a process would take a lot of time and resources.

According to sources, the English club takes the players who are to enter the first team over the upcoming years as a bonus to the team until the ongoing changes finally start to take effect.

An internal overhaul is not the only thing that has been considered by the club’s executives in order to bolster Manchester City’s ranks. As revealed by media records, the club’s hierarchy has also been considering massive broadcasting deals as a means for youngsters to turn into major advantage in the Premier League competition in the years yet to come.

Future market shrinking has been found as a trend, and more and more English clubs have been trying to resist multi-million transfer offers for top players by becoming more focused on producing high-quality academy graduates over the last several years.

As for Manchester United, the club could offer some of its youngsters a chance in the FA Cup game against Chelsea that is scheduled for February 21st, as the squad is trying to deal with the ongoing difficulties in what could turn out a situation that could not be solved at this stage.

The club is currently 4th in the Premier League table. The men of Manuel Pellegrini are to play four matches in just eleven days, which would surely increase the pressure on the entire squad.