Unusually good piece on City's academy

[twosips]

I strongly recommend looking at the OS video on our young Spanish left back Angelino. 17 years old and looks really good. Making the step up to the EDS this season. Learned very good English while at City and seems a very intelligent sensible and well balanced lad. One to watch indeed. Could fit into the first team squad in a couple of years. Claims he turned down Real Madrid and Barcelona to come here. Well done Txiki!

I was mentioning Angelino when we were linked with Luke Shaw, as a reason not to sign him. Not as big physically but more talented as a footballer imo. If he can match the physical side of the Prem, he's a cert imo. IF. But he seems a strong & committed lad.

Best prospect I've ever seen in that position at City. But imo perhaps may move forward rather than staying at fullback .There is another Spanish lad on the other side who also looks the part.

That's Maffeo isn't it? From what i've read/seen he looks very much in the Zabaleta mould, which is no bad thing.

[blues2win]

Agree that Angelino looks a bit small but at 17 he could still develop physically.

[PrezIke]

great piece. hard to not continue to be excited about the future of the club.

also, quite an adept move by sheikh mansour and management to look to over the long term help change opinion of the club in england as one of "foreign mercenaries" who are "killing english football" into one that could be THE most important developer of english talent. as some have alluded to, this could also expose the reality that the other top english clubs, as we all know, do not really do this rather than poach young english prospects from lower clubs as they get to the late teenage years and even beyond.

even if you look at the comments below the article you can see how some non-city supporters, who express dislike for the club, are in favour of what we are doing with how it can help with the future of the national team/overall development of english players.

also funny because the fa and hodgson are constantly complaining about how top clubs are not doing enough, and we as the so-called boogieman of english football are leading the charge to change this.

curious how others feel about the potential b league.

i know there are those who hate the idea of how it would likely hurt smaller/local club football, with an effective drop in loans of prospects to their clubs, and of course meaning another league they would have to compete with run by big club names/money. but the point i believe Vieira makes about the gap between the youth leagues and pro leagues as being too far for ensuring the highest quality development of young english players owned by the bigger clubs sounds legitimate. we know in our case we want consistency in training/coaching, so to have full control over your players seems best, if you can afford it, of course. is it then that if england wants to win the world cup again could it need to be at the expense of local/smaller football clubs?

[Ted Hughes]

I strongly recommend looking at the OS video on our young Spanish left back Angelino. 17 years old and looks really good. Making the step up to the EDS this season. Learned very good English while at City and seems a very intelligent sensible and well balanced lad. One to watch indeed. Could fit into the first team squad in a couple of years. Claims he turned down Real Madrid and Barcelona to come here. Well done Txiki!

I was mentioning Angelino when we were linked with Luke Shaw, as a reason not to sign him. Not as big physically but more talented as a footballer imo. If he can match the physical side of the Prem, he's a cert imo. IF. But he seems a strong & committed lad.

Best prospect I've ever seen in that position at City. But imo perhaps may move forward rather than staying at fullback .There is another Spanish lad on the other side who also looks the part.

That's Maffeo isn't it? From what i've read/seen he looks very much in the Zabaleta mould, which is no bad thing.

Yes that's him ta. Better footballer than Zabba imo, whether he has the other qualities we will have to see.

[Ted Hughes]

great piece. hard to not continue to be excited about the future of the club.

also, quite an adept move by sheikh mansour and management to look to over the long term help change opinion of the club in england as one of "foreign mercenaries" who are "killing english football" into one that could be THE most important developer of english talent. as some have alluded to, this could also expose the reality that the other top english clubs, as we all know, do not really do this rather than poach young english prospects from lower clubs as they get to the late teenage years and even beyond.

even if you look at the comments below the article you can see how some non-city supporters, who express dislike for the club, are in favour of what we are doing with how it can help with the future of the national team/overall development of english players.

also funny because the fa and hodgson are constantly complaining about how top clubs are not doing enough, and we as the so-called boogieman of english football are leading the charge to change this.

curious how others feel about the potential b league.

i know there are those who hate the idea of how it would likely hurt smaller/local club football, with an effective drop in loans of prospects to their clubs, and of course meaning another league they would have to compete with run by big club names/money. but the point i believe Vieira makes about the gap between the youth leagues and pro leagues as being too far for ensuring the highest quality development of young english players owned by the bigger clubs sounds legitimate. we know in our case we want consistency in training/coaching, so to have full control over your players seems best, if you can afford it, of course. is it then that if england wants to win the world cup again could it need to be at the expense of local/smaller football clubs?

It doesn't matter what we think though; if the clubs in those leagues don't accept it, then it's not going to happen. It's their domain & people can't force it on them whether it's good for development or not.

[gillie]

Fantastic to read! You would think that Gregg Dyke, the FA and the media would give this a lot more coverage. I was surprised how many of the lower age group players were English. Its great to see and shows there is hope for the future! Another couple of years and we will be able to ram this down all the doubters throats! Especially Bourinho and his 'little pony' speech!

On a somewhat cynical note, it's quite obvious why most of the players in the lower age groups are English, since you aren't allowed to sign players under 18. And relocating whole families from country X is something I think will only be done for absolute top top top class prospects (if at all).

How old do you think Rekik was when he joined City?

16 or 17. See discussion above.

I think he was 15 could have been even younger though.

[Slim]

Fantastic to read! You would think that Gregg Dyke, the FA and the media would give this a lot more coverage. I was surprised how many of the lower age group players were English. Its great to see and shows there is hope for the future! Another couple of years and we will be able to ram this down all the doubters throats! Especially Bourinho and his 'little pony' speech!

On a somewhat cynical note, it's quite obvious why most of the players in the lower age groups are English, since you aren't allowed to sign players under 18. And relocating whole families from country X is something I think will only be done for absolute top top top class prospects (if at all).

How old do you think Rekik was when he joined City?

16 or 17. See discussion above.

I think he was 15 could have been even younger though.

16, but in Europe you are allowed to sign them at whatever age, it's only outside of europe where that becomes an issue. Actually I think some Eastern bloc countries might have an 18+ rule as well, not 100%. But we've signed young Spaniards, Belgians and that lad from Norway in the U15's.

[Tokyo Blue]

i know there are those who hate the idea of how it would likely hurt smaller/local club football, with an effective drop in loans of prospects to their clubs, and of course meaning another league they would have to compete with run by big club names/money. but the point i believe Vieira makes about the gap between the youth leagues and pro leagues as being too far for ensuring the highest quality development of young english players owned by the bigger clubs sounds legitimate. we know in our case we want consistency in training/coaching, so to have full control over your players seems best, if you can afford it, of course. is it then that if england wants to win the world cup again could it need to be at the expense of local/smaller football clubs?

The Scottish Premier League could be expanded to 22 clubs with the inclusion of English B teams.

[Ted Hughes]

16, but in Europe you are allowed to sign them at whatever age, it's only outside of europe where that becomes an issue. Actually I think some Eastern bloc countries might have an 18+ rule as well, not 100%. But we've signed young Spaniards, Belgians and that lad from Norway in the U15's.

Are you sure about this re Europe ? I was under the impression that we actually cashed in on signing players from for instance France, because they could not sign deals in their country at whatever age, but could do here, so we pinched them.

I'm fully admitting to going off a crappy memory though, so if you're sure I accept it.

[Slim]

16, but in Europe you are allowed to sign them at whatever age, it's only outside of europe where that becomes an issue. Actually I think some Eastern bloc countries might have an 18+ rule as well, not 100%. But we've signed young Spaniards, Belgians and that lad from Norway in the U15's.

Are you sure about this re Europe ? I was under the impression that we actually cashed in on signing players from for instance France, because they could not sign deals in their country at whatever age, but could do here, so we pinched them.

I'm fully admitting to going off a crappy memory though, so if you're sure I accept it.

Are you thinking Jeremy Helan?

You could be right, in fact we both could, but I meant English clubs are allowed to sign players from Europe at any age.

Edit:I do know that in Italy you can sign 15yo's, because one of our former sicknotes signed for Lecce at 15.

[Ted Hughes]

16, but in Europe you are allowed to sign them at whatever age, it's only outside of europe where that becomes an issue. Actually I think some Eastern bloc countries might have an 18+ rule as well, not 100%. But we've signed young Spaniards, Belgians and that lad from Norway in the U15's.

Are you sure about this re Europe ? I was under the impression that we actually cashed in on signing players from for instance France, because they could not sign deals in their country at whatever age, but could do here, so we pinched them.

I'm fully admitting to going off a crappy memory though, so if you're sure I accept it.

Are you thinking Jeremy Helan?

You could be right, in fact we both could, but I meant English clubs are allowed to sign players from Europe at any age.

Edit:I do know that in Italy you can sign 15yo's, because one of our former sicknotes signed for Lecce at 15.

It might have been Helan yeah. But I was under the impression there were more too.

[Cocacolajojo1]

Might as well post it here rather than start a new thread.

Forward Denis Zeric, Bosnian U17 player, and midfielder Amir Hadziahmetovic, Bosnian U19 player, have been offered a trial next week with Manchester City.

I found this on a Swedish fan site, anyone else know anything more about these players and if trials actually mean anything more than strengthening relationships between clubs, in this case Manchester City and FK Zeljeznicar in BIH.

[Ted Hughes]

Might as well post it here rather than start a new thread.

Forward Denis Zeric, Bosnian U17 player, and midfielder Amir Hadziahmetovic, Bosnian U19 player, have been offered a trial next week with Manchester City.

I found this on a Swedish fan site, anyone else know anything more about these players and if trials actually mean anything more than strengthening relationships between clubs, in this case Manchester City and FK Zeljeznicar in BIH.

Know nowt about them, but if you look at the reports of academy pre season games, triallists are mentioned several times involved in scoring etc, seems we are trying a few out. Doesn't give names, just says 'a triallist' each time.