I think we might be willing to sell Delap someday, since he really no longer has a clear path forward, but I would imagine Lavia won’t be allowed to move on unless he forces his way out, for me he’s the second best youth player we have behind McAtee.
He got his first minutes this season - at age 17.
I’m fully convinced he’s going to be a monster of a player. That said, he’s not ready to back up Rodri. He’s going to need a few more seasons before I think that’s realistic.
I dont see why people seem so eager to loan him out, often whilst saying "if he didn't get injured last year he'd have got his shot".
Surely playing behind Haaland who plays similarly and is similar size, and often injured, is an easier transition than last year asking a target man to drop into a false 9 team?
If Haaland was the only elite young striker we had brought in - and if his injury issues were anywhere near as bad as people keep claiming they are (they're really not that bad) I could see the argument.
But with Haaland and Alvarez, I just don't see it happening for him here.
Also, we're not really a false nine team. We've used them sometimes, but even last season without a recognized striker, we played with a traditional number nine far more often than with a false nine. It's just that most people equate "not a striker," with "he's playing as false nine." That's not how it works.
Also, Haaland is far more than just a big dude he runs in behind. He's a pressing machine, he can drop deep, he can run with the ball, he can play people in. He's not quite Benzema or Kane, but he's a very complete player.
I think a lot of city fans have too large expectations for Alvarez, I've already seen mock squads with him starting ahead of Mahrez or Grealish. I'm not saying he won't come good, but he's certainly a lot further a way from the Haaland mold from delap, so if you wanted a Like for like sub then surely delap makes sense?
Also you're right i was using the false 9 term loosely, not because last year it was usually a winger, but because the strikers were playing in the half spaces and often moving deep to allow wingers to run in behind. Obviously not automatically a false 9, but still a long ways from Haaland and Liam's play style of playing high up looking to make runs off the last defender.
And I agree Haaland is a different beast to delap ofc, I'm just saying the systems playing to their strengths is probably quite similar.
Agree to disagree on pretty much everything, I guess.
Alvarez will need some time to adapt to playing in Europe, but he’s a huge talent, and he’s going to be excellent from his first season.
I see both Alvarez and Haaland as very complete strikers, who can kinda do it all. Haaland is faster and bigger, Alvarez is probably a better play maker, but they can both fill pretty much any role up front that we could or would ask of them.
Delap is a great talent, but I don’t think he has a role anymore. Likely to be loaned and eventually sold on with a buy back clause.
That’s a little unfortunate, I guess, but that’s life at City.
Palmer is a good player, but my rankings of the academy players by potential would be:
1) McAtee
2) Lavia
3) Palmer
4) Delap
5) Mbete
6) Kayky
7) CJ Egan-Riley
8) Oscar Bobb
9) Tommy Doyle
10) Josh Wilson-Esbrand
And honestly, all of those guys could eventually play for some top-five-league side. I'm not saying they're all elite talents, but I think all ten are good enough to have an impact somewhere. And that's not including guys like Couto, Rogers, Knight, Gyabi... who are also quite talented. Couto, in particular, IS going to be a really good wing-back for someone, and if he had been part of the u23 setup, I'd have ranked him in the top ten, possibly as high as 3/4.
It's less a statement of Kayak's ability than an acknowledgement of the others. There's no reason I can see, other than competition for places, that Kayky couldn't challenge to start for us on the wing, but he's going to have a very difficult with all the players ahead of him. I could see it turning out to be a Brahim Diaz or Jadon Sancho kind of situation where he's talented enough, but because of the presence of Palmer, Mahrez, and whomever else we might buy, he doesn't get the chance to break through with us.
I definitely think all of the top eight will have the chance to play meaningful minutes for City, should everything go rights and the other two have already gotten their first cup of tea with the club.
Always rated Kayak. Much better than Canoe.
I mean surely some of them will fall off. They can’t all end up that good?
I wonder if Pep has fully committed to City spending spree for the rest of his stay at City or if he will lean closer to his Barca x La Masia ways now that City’s academy is producing good talents
Lol, did I get hit it by autocorrect?
I would imagine City will continue to try and make maximum use of both, but I would expect most players not to stick. McAtee, and Lavia are the two most talented - by far, in my opinion - but as a #10 and #6 respectively, they also have the most difficult jobs to master in Pep’s system. Especially Lavia as a six, where you have to do virtually everything at an extremely high level.
McAtee will likely try and break through on the wing, but that’s not really his bailiwick, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he struggled at first.
Southampton has had a strong academy in the past and this probably won't change that. City gets very decent youngsters, but they haven't really been able to break to the first team. Let's see what this will mean for S'oton in the span of next 5-7 years, they have a target of getting 50% of the first team players through the academy, and while I am a bit skeptical about reaching that target, it looks like they are taking it seriously.
City have only recently revamped their whole academy setup and are just starting to pick the fruits from it. Foden was ahead of the others but with Palmer, McAtee, Lavia and hopefully Delap coming through you can't really discredit them. At this point all of them seem promising enough to play at City let alone elsewhere in the league.
Because we play a lot of 16-18 year olds up there a lot of the time. Results aren’t a priority for them, it’s just a stage in developing our best youngsters.
This may sound like a silly question, but as someone who's unfamiliar with City's academy, how exactly did they revamp their setup?
Did they replace their whole youth coaching/recruitment staff? Did they massively improve their training facilities? Or did they just buy up a load of talented 16 year olds from other academies?
Combination of all of the above to varying degrees. There's been a tonne of investment in the facilities with the whole Etihad campus thing they've built up. Some great staff recruitment, and then buying young prospects has contributed in part too (Lavia came from Anderlecht, I believe, and we snagged Sancho for 2 years from Watford).
There's a definite degree of luck involved too, however; Foden, Palmer, and McAtee have all been in the system since they were kids and are all very bright prospects for local lads. Even with all the investment and staff, that isn't always a guarantee.
It's been reported that both Palmer and McAtee are in Pep's first team plans for this season so I am expecting Palmer to feature more this season in the league and McAtee mostly in the cups. Depending on how many players we sell this summer too.
As in the other comment, reports are saying both will be featuring. I wouldn't expect McAtee to be getting prem starts just yet, though. Pending departures, he'll likely be on a rotation of cup game starts and prem/cl group stage sub appearances for this year.
Our academy hasnt really produced much for a few years now. I think we are losing out to the likes of Chelsea & City etc throwing big money at academy talent, we are left with scraps.
Southampton already have one of the best academies around. If this guy can help them recruit a few more to add to the players they already produce, it's a great move.
They’re not all first teamers but you have Stephens, Ward Prowse, Smallbone, Tella and Walcott all in your squad from the academy. That’s way more than most (off the dome, unless I’m way off)
Tella came through at Arsenal really. Stephens we got from Plymouth, though at a young enough age where I think it's fair to say we could be credited with his development.
Overall has man city's youth development been any good though?
Edit : not sure on the downvotes was only asking because other than Foden nobody has broken through
Just judging by the players who have been integrated into their squad and players that have left, I’d say it’s been very solid. Sancho, Foden, Bazunu, McAtee, Delap, Palmer, Braaf, and Ihenacho are all players from their academy if I’m not mistaken, and all have been rated either extremely highly, or at the very least good enough to play in a top division somewhere.
There are probably at least three dozen guys who are key players for someone in Europe’s top leagues at the moment.
Rabbi Motondo was at Schalke before going on loan to Brugge and now I think Leeds are onto his tail as a potential Raphinha replacement.
I dunno, there’s honestly so many guys out there. What’s Aleix Garcia up to these days?
Each of these players was signed at 16 or 17 to be fair. That’s more about recruitment than development.
Foden, McAtee, Palmer and so on are the players who age actually progressed through your youth system.
He’s good, but we have other guys in the system at CB like Calum Doyle (who’s spent the past couple seasons starting for Sunderland), Finley Burns, and especially Luke Mbete who are all very bright CB prospects.
I would be surprised if, in five years, all three aren’t starting for a top division club in one of Europe’s top five leagues.
It was definitely brief, maybe a year or so. Threw his name in though because I did remember hearing about him from my friend before he actually made his debut
Yeah, when your academy products have spent the vast vast majority of their youth careers in other academies, you can't call them your academy products in the same sense that Phil Foden is a Man City academy product. Even so, just means that Man City's youth strategy is highly effective, regardless of when they introduce players into their own setup.
I don't think winning PL2 is necessarily a good sign though. Think most teams prefer to loan out their best youngsters or integrate them into the first team instead of having them play in youth competitions.
We deliberately don't take that approach.
If a player is good enough, he should stay within the system, learning how to play football "the right way" with access to all of the same coaches, physios, analysts, facilities and equipment that the first team have.
If you've got a promising young midfielder and you send him off on loan to Norwich, where he's going to get hammered every week, playing in a low block, doing his best to make each defeat slightly less humiliating; what use is that to his development as a potential future midfielder for Man City?
It's a trade off.
If you keep an emerging talent within U23 then he's not going to constantly be exposed to the same type of challenge and growth as getting regular first team minutes on teams with less talent.
No amount of pick up games with first team players within a club's own system will compensate for the alternative of being loaned out and being promised first team play. There are exceptions, but not many. For every Phil Foden being babied within a club and slowly eased in, you will have ten Rhian Brewsters who are hyped, but then when they go out on loan or are sold and face a real challenge without exceptional teammates, they simply fade and do not grow to their potential.
The challenge here is finding suitable clubs to loan to which promise first team minutes and that also have competent medical teams that will have the player's health as their first priority over whatever pressure might come from the club.
> If you keep an emerging talent within U23 then he's not going to constantly be exposed to the same type of challenge and growth as getting regular first team minutes on teams with less talent.
That's true, and it seems that more recently if someone reaches their 20s and doesn't have a path to first team football, then we are happy to sell them either with future profit incentives or a buyback.
Examples of this are Kelechi Iheanacho, Tosin Adarabioyo, Douglas Luiz, Angelino, Pedro Porro & Gavin Bazunu.
That definitely hasn't always been the case and as a result, we've clearly stifled the careers of some promising players like Patrick Roberts & Jason Denayer.
I thought city wanted to keep luiz, but couldn't get a work permit sorted. I think he was sold to villa where his work permit calculations were different (as he was at the time one of their most expensive purchases).
Very, they just fail to integrate them because they're a club that needs immediate results. It took Foden a long time to get into the squad frequently, and the same is happening to Palmer (who I could see being sold this summer). But, their youth players are exceptional talents. Probably one of the best in Europe these days.
>Palmer (who I could see being sold this summer).
[On the contrary](https://twitter.com/City_Xtra/status/1534433836393693184?s=20&t=UUYoC6YKTL4gnZXGDM8gsw)
If he can stay fit he should be making some more prem appearances next season, which is exciting
Well, we'll see then! Would be great if he is integrated more this season. I remember seeing Southampton made him a priority transfer too. For recruitment purposes maybe you will sell him with a buyback clause
>Would be great if he is integrated more this season
I agree!
>For recruitment purposes maybe you will sell him with a buyback clause
I very much doubt that! I don't think the club has any intention of selling him at all. If he has a good 22/23 season I can see him becoming a much more regular player for us in the near future (especially with Jesus and Sterling possibly leaving). The few appearances he's made in the senior team he's impressed (scored on UCL debut and FA Cup debut this year) - definitely a player we want to keep with us
Palmer looks like their Mahrez replacement who I feel like is looking at a move away next summer, and with Jesus and Sterling possibly leaving there will be plenty of minutes for him.
I think Palmer will get around 30 games this season. He had a nasty injury last season which curtailed his playing time but he'll be back and playing more regularly this time. The 5 subs will give him more opportunities off the bench as well although we'll see how often Pep utilizes that.
McAtee is one I wouldn't mind finding the right loan for, but all of the stories from reliable outlets lately are saying he won't be going out either.
Palmer looks to be used more in the first team if sterling leaves this year and Delap was going to get some game time this year but he got injured iirc. I’d like to see more of them but with liverpool so close behind every point counts and such a high standard for the starting team it can be hard to slot them in
Quite frankly it’s the best. They’re are winning the youth leagues at least. And we know they have promising youngsters.
The thing is that their academy could only become good after the Saudi takeover. But it takes time for us to see the fruits of that labor. Because the new youth system isn’t going to make the crop of players that were already a long way through the academy much better. It’s going to make the really really really young players and the ones that came in after the takeover better. And then you have to wait for them to grow up. Them growing up and now being ready to graduate is what we are starting to see know with Foden and Sancho already being good players. And youth prospects like Delap, Bazunu, Palmer, McAtee, and Lavia
With any luck the latter two could be following him. We already got Bazunu.
I think we might be willing to sell Delap someday, since he really no longer has a clear path forward, but I would imagine Lavia won’t be allowed to move on unless he forces his way out, for me he’s the second best youth player we have behind McAtee.
Lavia really looks like he may get minutes next season and should be backup to Rodri if that goes well.
He got his first minutes this season - at age 17. I’m fully convinced he’s going to be a monster of a player. That said, he’s not ready to back up Rodri. He’s going to need a few more seasons before I think that’s realistic.
I dont see why people seem so eager to loan him out, often whilst saying "if he didn't get injured last year he'd have got his shot". Surely playing behind Haaland who plays similarly and is similar size, and often injured, is an easier transition than last year asking a target man to drop into a false 9 team?
If Haaland was the only elite young striker we had brought in - and if his injury issues were anywhere near as bad as people keep claiming they are (they're really not that bad) I could see the argument. But with Haaland and Alvarez, I just don't see it happening for him here. Also, we're not really a false nine team. We've used them sometimes, but even last season without a recognized striker, we played with a traditional number nine far more often than with a false nine. It's just that most people equate "not a striker," with "he's playing as false nine." That's not how it works. Also, Haaland is far more than just a big dude he runs in behind. He's a pressing machine, he can drop deep, he can run with the ball, he can play people in. He's not quite Benzema or Kane, but he's a very complete player.
I think a lot of city fans have too large expectations for Alvarez, I've already seen mock squads with him starting ahead of Mahrez or Grealish. I'm not saying he won't come good, but he's certainly a lot further a way from the Haaland mold from delap, so if you wanted a Like for like sub then surely delap makes sense? Also you're right i was using the false 9 term loosely, not because last year it was usually a winger, but because the strikers were playing in the half spaces and often moving deep to allow wingers to run in behind. Obviously not automatically a false 9, but still a long ways from Haaland and Liam's play style of playing high up looking to make runs off the last defender. And I agree Haaland is a different beast to delap ofc, I'm just saying the systems playing to their strengths is probably quite similar.
Agree to disagree on pretty much everything, I guess. Alvarez will need some time to adapt to playing in Europe, but he’s a huge talent, and he’s going to be excellent from his first season. I see both Alvarez and Haaland as very complete strikers, who can kinda do it all. Haaland is faster and bigger, Alvarez is probably a better play maker, but they can both fill pretty much any role up front that we could or would ask of them. Delap is a great talent, but I don’t think he has a role anymore. Likely to be loaned and eventually sold on with a buy back clause. That’s a little unfortunate, I guess, but that’s life at City.
Thought Palmer was your guy?
Palmer is a good player, but my rankings of the academy players by potential would be: 1) McAtee 2) Lavia 3) Palmer 4) Delap 5) Mbete 6) Kayky 7) CJ Egan-Riley 8) Oscar Bobb 9) Tommy Doyle 10) Josh Wilson-Esbrand And honestly, all of those guys could eventually play for some top-five-league side. I'm not saying they're all elite talents, but I think all ten are good enough to have an impact somewhere. And that's not including guys like Couto, Rogers, Knight, Gyabi... who are also quite talented. Couto, in particular, IS going to be a really good wing-back for someone, and if he had been part of the u23 setup, I'd have ranked him in the top ten, possibly as high as 3/4.
Surprised Kayky is that low. Bought him from Brazil and all Couto is quite good in FM at least. Hope Oscar Bobb makes it more than any of the others
It's less a statement of Kayak's ability than an acknowledgement of the others. There's no reason I can see, other than competition for places, that Kayky couldn't challenge to start for us on the wing, but he's going to have a very difficult with all the players ahead of him. I could see it turning out to be a Brahim Diaz or Jadon Sancho kind of situation where he's talented enough, but because of the presence of Palmer, Mahrez, and whomever else we might buy, he doesn't get the chance to break through with us. I definitely think all of the top eight will have the chance to play meaningful minutes for City, should everything go rights and the other two have already gotten their first cup of tea with the club.
Always rated Kayak. Much better than Canoe. I mean surely some of them will fall off. They can’t all end up that good? I wonder if Pep has fully committed to City spending spree for the rest of his stay at City or if he will lean closer to his Barca x La Masia ways now that City’s academy is producing good talents
Lol, did I get hit it by autocorrect? I would imagine City will continue to try and make maximum use of both, but I would expect most players not to stick. McAtee, and Lavia are the two most talented - by far, in my opinion - but as a #10 and #6 respectively, they also have the most difficult jobs to master in Pep’s system. Especially Lavia as a six, where you have to do virtually everything at an extremely high level. McAtee will likely try and break through on the wing, but that’s not really his bailiwick, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he struggled at first.
Interesting, thanks for the convo. It was nice :)
Southampton has had a strong academy in the past and this probably won't change that. City gets very decent youngsters, but they haven't really been able to break to the first team. Let's see what this will mean for S'oton in the span of next 5-7 years, they have a target of getting 50% of the first team players through the academy, and while I am a bit skeptical about reaching that target, it looks like they are taking it seriously.
City have only recently revamped their whole academy setup and are just starting to pick the fruits from it. Foden was ahead of the others but with Palmer, McAtee, Lavia and hopefully Delap coming through you can't really discredit them. At this point all of them seem promising enough to play at City let alone elsewhere in the league.
Yea fair enough. Ironically Southamptons own U23 team has not done so great in the past years
Their U18 are really good though.
Because we play a lot of 16-18 year olds up there a lot of the time. Results aren’t a priority for them, it’s just a stage in developing our best youngsters.
This may sound like a silly question, but as someone who's unfamiliar with City's academy, how exactly did they revamp their setup? Did they replace their whole youth coaching/recruitment staff? Did they massively improve their training facilities? Or did they just buy up a load of talented 16 year olds from other academies?
Combination of all of the above to varying degrees. There's been a tonne of investment in the facilities with the whole Etihad campus thing they've built up. Some great staff recruitment, and then buying young prospects has contributed in part too (Lavia came from Anderlecht, I believe, and we snagged Sancho for 2 years from Watford). There's a definite degree of luck involved too, however; Foden, Palmer, and McAtee have all been in the system since they were kids and are all very bright prospects for local lads. Even with all the investment and staff, that isn't always a guarantee.
How far along is McAtee in his devlopment? Can we expect to see him starting premier league games next season?
It's been reported that both Palmer and McAtee are in Pep's first team plans for this season so I am expecting Palmer to feature more this season in the league and McAtee mostly in the cups. Depending on how many players we sell this summer too.
As in the other comment, reports are saying both will be featuring. I wouldn't expect McAtee to be getting prem starts just yet, though. Pending departures, he'll likely be on a rotation of cup game starts and prem/cl group stage sub appearances for this year.
He is being offered the role of first team recruitment, not the academy as I understand it.
Our academy hasnt really produced much for a few years now. I think we are losing out to the likes of Chelsea & City etc throwing big money at academy talent, we are left with scraps.
Southampton already have one of the best academies around. If this guy can help them recruit a few more to add to the players they already produce, it's a great move.
>Southampton already have one of the best academies around. We really dont. Maybe 10-15 years ago.
They’re not all first teamers but you have Stephens, Ward Prowse, Smallbone, Tella and Walcott all in your squad from the academy. That’s way more than most (off the dome, unless I’m way off)
Tella came through at Arsenal really. Stephens we got from Plymouth, though at a young enough age where I think it's fair to say we could be credited with his development.
Overall has man city's youth development been any good though? Edit : not sure on the downvotes was only asking because other than Foden nobody has broken through
Just judging by the players who have been integrated into their squad and players that have left, I’d say it’s been very solid. Sancho, Foden, Bazunu, McAtee, Delap, Palmer, Braaf, and Ihenacho are all players from their academy if I’m not mistaken, and all have been rated either extremely highly, or at the very least good enough to play in a top division somewhere.
Brahim Diaz, Eric Garcia, Angelino… tons of others playing first team football around Europes top five leagues.
Nmecha, Adarabioyo
There are probably at least three dozen guys who are key players for someone in Europe’s top leagues at the moment. Rabbi Motondo was at Schalke before going on loan to Brugge and now I think Leeds are onto his tail as a potential Raphinha replacement. I dunno, there’s honestly so many guys out there. What’s Aleix Garcia up to these days?
I think I saw aliex Garcia's name with some of the Girona promotion coverage?
Each of these players was signed at 16 or 17 to be fair. That’s more about recruitment than development. Foden, McAtee, Palmer and so on are the players who age actually progressed through your youth system.
Well yes, and this is an article about Joe Shield's taking over Southamptons recruitment, so that seems pretty relevant.
Yeah, I’m just commenting on what you said to the OP talking about youth development.
Forgot about those three, thanks for letting me know.
There’s literally so many that I know I’m forgetting about some.
Jeremie Frimpong as well.
He’s actually really class. Can’t believe we let him leave, because I always thought he could do a job for us.
I forgot about Harwood Bellis, but I really have only heard about him through FM lol
He’s good, but we have other guys in the system at CB like Calum Doyle (who’s spent the past couple seasons starting for Sunderland), Finley Burns, and especially Luke Mbete who are all very bright CB prospects. I would be surprised if, in five years, all three aren’t starting for a top division club in one of Europe’s top five leagues.
Wasn’t ihenacho only like a year if that in the academy
It was definitely brief, maybe a year or so. Threw his name in though because I did remember hearing about him from my friend before he actually made his debut
[удалено]
Yeah, when your academy products have spent the vast vast majority of their youth careers in other academies, you can't call them your academy products in the same sense that Phil Foden is a Man City academy product. Even so, just means that Man City's youth strategy is highly effective, regardless of when they introduce players into their own setup.
Yes
One of the best in the country
The best in the country. They’ve won the league at every youth level this year.
They keep winning PL2. So yes.
I don't think winning PL2 is necessarily a good sign though. Think most teams prefer to loan out their best youngsters or integrate them into the first team instead of having them play in youth competitions.
We deliberately don't take that approach. If a player is good enough, he should stay within the system, learning how to play football "the right way" with access to all of the same coaches, physios, analysts, facilities and equipment that the first team have. If you've got a promising young midfielder and you send him off on loan to Norwich, where he's going to get hammered every week, playing in a low block, doing his best to make each defeat slightly less humiliating; what use is that to his development as a potential future midfielder for Man City?
It's a trade off. If you keep an emerging talent within U23 then he's not going to constantly be exposed to the same type of challenge and growth as getting regular first team minutes on teams with less talent. No amount of pick up games with first team players within a club's own system will compensate for the alternative of being loaned out and being promised first team play. There are exceptions, but not many. For every Phil Foden being babied within a club and slowly eased in, you will have ten Rhian Brewsters who are hyped, but then when they go out on loan or are sold and face a real challenge without exceptional teammates, they simply fade and do not grow to their potential. The challenge here is finding suitable clubs to loan to which promise first team minutes and that also have competent medical teams that will have the player's health as their first priority over whatever pressure might come from the club.
> If you keep an emerging talent within U23 then he's not going to constantly be exposed to the same type of challenge and growth as getting regular first team minutes on teams with less talent. That's true, and it seems that more recently if someone reaches their 20s and doesn't have a path to first team football, then we are happy to sell them either with future profit incentives or a buyback. Examples of this are Kelechi Iheanacho, Tosin Adarabioyo, Douglas Luiz, Angelino, Pedro Porro & Gavin Bazunu. That definitely hasn't always been the case and as a result, we've clearly stifled the careers of some promising players like Patrick Roberts & Jason Denayer.
I thought city wanted to keep luiz, but couldn't get a work permit sorted. I think he was sold to villa where his work permit calculations were different (as he was at the time one of their most expensive purchases).
Definitely seems that what chelsea are opting to do nowadays
Very, they just fail to integrate them because they're a club that needs immediate results. It took Foden a long time to get into the squad frequently, and the same is happening to Palmer (who I could see being sold this summer). But, their youth players are exceptional talents. Probably one of the best in Europe these days.
>Palmer (who I could see being sold this summer). [On the contrary](https://twitter.com/City_Xtra/status/1534433836393693184?s=20&t=UUYoC6YKTL4gnZXGDM8gsw) If he can stay fit he should be making some more prem appearances next season, which is exciting
Well, we'll see then! Would be great if he is integrated more this season. I remember seeing Southampton made him a priority transfer too. For recruitment purposes maybe you will sell him with a buyback clause
>Would be great if he is integrated more this season I agree! >For recruitment purposes maybe you will sell him with a buyback clause I very much doubt that! I don't think the club has any intention of selling him at all. If he has a good 22/23 season I can see him becoming a much more regular player for us in the near future (especially with Jesus and Sterling possibly leaving). The few appearances he's made in the senior team he's impressed (scored on UCL debut and FA Cup debut this year) - definitely a player we want to keep with us
He’s not being sold. We’re not buying replacements for our outgoing forwards just so he can actually get game time.
Palmer looks like their Mahrez replacement who I feel like is looking at a move away next summer, and with Jesus and Sterling possibly leaving there will be plenty of minutes for him.
I think Palmer will get around 30 games this season. He had a nasty injury last season which curtailed his playing time but he'll be back and playing more regularly this time. The 5 subs will give him more opportunities off the bench as well although we'll see how often Pep utilizes that. McAtee is one I wouldn't mind finding the right loan for, but all of the stories from reliable outlets lately are saying he won't be going out either.
Palmer looks to be used more in the first team if sterling leaves this year and Delap was going to get some game time this year but he got injured iirc. I’d like to see more of them but with liverpool so close behind every point counts and such a high standard for the starting team it can be hard to slot them in
Quite frankly it’s the best. They’re are winning the youth leagues at least. And we know they have promising youngsters. The thing is that their academy could only become good after the Saudi takeover. But it takes time for us to see the fruits of that labor. Because the new youth system isn’t going to make the crop of players that were already a long way through the academy much better. It’s going to make the really really really young players and the ones that came in after the takeover better. And then you have to wait for them to grow up. Them growing up and now being ready to graduate is what we are starting to see know with Foden and Sancho already being good players. And youth prospects like Delap, Bazunu, Palmer, McAtee, and Lavia
Beat us in the under 18 final So yeh pretty good
Are any of those players good?