Mixed Feelings On Loaning Out Manchester City's Young Talent To British Football

Although John Guidetti isn't an Academy or EDS player any more, his on field progression has been hampered by what I believe is a lack of belief in the lad by Mark Hughes. While his situation at Stoke has appeared to teach Guidetti patience is important, I don't believe his stint with the Potter's has improved his game much.

Loan Success?   4/10

Looking at the bigger picture we have quite a few future prospects out on loan, but my beef is that they're not getting enough game time and half the time end up picking up niggling injuries and sometimes serious injury. So is it really worth sending our young lads out on loan to the lower combative leagues of British football?

Lets face that fact that none of our youth have come back better off after being loaned out to British clubs for as long as I can remember, I'd challenge anyone to prove me wrong on this and Joe Hart can't be used as an example because he was already a success before joining Birmingham.

Championship side Birmingham City currently fighting relegation, who have two of our lads on loan to date, Our Welsh International Midfielder Emyr Huws has impressed and held down a place but recently suffered a severe cut to his head thanks to Jason Lowe of Blackburn Rovers (No surprise there aye). The loan spell of Albert Rusnak however has been far from helpful, he's been out on loan since the 21st January 2014.

However our 19 year old Dutch Centre Back Karim Rekik is out on loan at PSV Eindhoven, he's impressed and held down a place well with reports claiming he's attracted attention from a host of European clubs.

OK OK English football is a man's game blah blah blah, but the fact of the matter is our talented youth or not yet men. So why ship them out to our tough tackling lower leagues only to be kicked around the playing field? Wouldn't it be more productive to send them out to less physical leagues in and around Europe while advise them to work on their Physical strength?

Our England Midfielder George Evans has had an unsuccessful Loan out to Crewe Alexandra, after initially impressing at the start of his loan spell. While our 20 year old England Winger Alex Henshall has had a mixed loan spell out at Ipswich Town.

All the talk has been of how Manchester City are ruining young players careers, the fact is City are not the problem at all. Which brings me to our little sister club New York City FC, I believe her to be a good alternative for our youth to develop better, quicker and faster. I even believe Germany, Portugal and Spain to be better options at earlier stages in our youth development.

City ruining young players careers has been based on Adam Johnson  Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair and co by narrow minded morons, players who never came through our youth system and players who clearly failed to make an impact on our senior side due to either laziness and arrogance (Adam Johnson), through unfortunate injury (Jack Rodwell) or not being good enough or City (Scott Sinclair).

Something definitely needs to be done to improve our loan progression, if we are to get our youth to push on and up their potential enough to impact our senior side and make the grade. Loaning them out to any club in a league lower than the Championship is just not good enough for a start (no disrespect to those leagues clubs), when they can get the same if not more experience in our EDS side playing European youth football.

What do you think?

Our Season Still A Success Despite Loss to Clattenburg FC And Possibly No Title

It doesn't get any more simple than the fact luck ran out on us, unlucky that Micah Richards would clash with our captain Kompany in training. Unlucky that Yaya would depart with an injury at the most important point in our title chasing campaign, Unlucky that we had our top goal scorer out for most of the season, I honestly believe that if Aguero never got injured he would have blown Sturridge and Suarez away and we may have well have already wrapped up the title.

Come the end of the season if it wasn't to be then we can thank one person for that, his name is Mark Clattenburg who has to be the worst referee to ever officiate for the English top flight. If anyone it was Clattenburg that beat Manchester City and not Liverpool, if they win the title Liverpool can thank their lucky stars Clattenburg helped them win it. 

Keys decisions that went against Manchester City were the failed sending off of Luis Suarez for diving, after an initial yellow card for a prior offence. The failed booking of Sakho for his dangerous tackle on Dzeko, resulting in no penalty despite the fact Dzeko went down easy to avoid an injury.

Then there was Henderson's two footed challenge on Milner which was absolutely disgraceful despite Henderson making contact with the ball. It was clear to see Henderson was intending to follow through on Milner, as he quietly fist punched the air with a 'take that' expression.  This is one reason why the likes of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales will never achieve anything, English, British players have no respect for each other's well being and allow loyalty to their club to cloud their better judgement.

And last but not least the dirtiest player currently plying his trade in the top flight, step up to the plate Mr Skrtel. How he gets away with it all the time is beyond baffling, it's like watching UFC and football at the same time. Then came the blatant hand ball incident where he punched the ball away from Garcia if I recall correctly, thus resulting in a second penalty call that Clattenburg failed to officiate correctly.

But at the end of the day apparently these things even themselves out during the course of a season, something I'm not quite sure is true when at times it can cost a club a title or survival but hey ho there you go.

On the upside we're about to smash Man  United's 51 year old record set by the Busby Babes, all we need is two more goals and we enter the record book as the club who scored the most goals in a single season.

We have some promising young players about to try break into the first team over the next season or two, most notably Dutch Left Central Defender Karim Rekik,  should Clichy or Kolarov depart, or if Lescott leaves and we don't replace him then Rekik will do just fine. Welsh Midfielder Emyr Huws also, Huws will count towards our home grown quota and has impressed of late and looks a promising young player indeed.

Poor officiating continues to be something that is top of my agenda to date, but I'm not going to let them ruin the entire season for me and I'll look on the bright side instead as should you. I just hope our club can weed out the weak ones and replace with competent, name no names and excluding those who have had horrid times with injury.

Mistakes were made and our luck ran out but the title fight is not over yet and there's still hope, so I'll prepare myself for next season while I watch the end of the show but should we fail to top the league there's always next season.

With that covered I must say Brendan  Rodgers claims that Liverpool are doing it the right way are both naive, ignorant and unintelligent to say the least. Liverpool have spent millions over the last so many seasons under the radar of Chelsea, Manchester City & Man United. IF they win the title then to suggest they won it the right way, would be ludicrously incorrect and ignorant. In fact once they qualify for the Champions League, I'll be watching how they cope with the FFP considering the financial mess they are in off the field.

Until then lets enjoy the fact our owner has helped us take yet another step towards financial sustainability with the development of our EDS and Under 18's teams flourishing with top young talent.

Improved progression in Europe, yet another season of Champions League football. A League Cup in the cabinet, A good manager in Mr Pellegrini who has had a full season to work out who does and who doesn't cut the mustard. Two competent men at the helm who know what they're doing and continue to improve us, as well as our stadium being built larger to accommodate growing demand for season cards and still our fans get more value for money than any other club in the country.

It's only a matter of time before we get it right without the help of luck and with the ability to beat official's like Clattenburg and Co on a regular basis.

P.s. If you think Sturridge is good, wait until you see who else we've produced at youth level.

Didn't Take Southampton Fans Long, Manchester City's Youth Making Progress

Didn't take long for the scum to rear their ugly heads, Southampton FC have not even kicked a ball in the Premier League yet and their fans are at it already.

This has to go down as the fastest bandwagon jump in English football history, Scummer SaintNick over at Fans Network: The Ugly Inside (appropriately named) has a lot to say.  Something tells me this is just the start of yet another clubs fan base getting bitter, jealous and envious of us, it seems that not being every ones favourite whipping boys anymore has hit a nerve even in the lower leagues.

SaintNick seems to think Manchester City are putting up their prices to fleece away fans out of their hard earned cash, clearly it has nothing to do with visiting the best stadium and hospitality in the country or watching the best players in the English Premier League up close.

Seem to me like they want freebie hand outs along with a pie and pint at Manchester City FC, at a price paid to watch a Championship side in a Championship stadium.

Nick goes on to leave a comment in reply to a fellow City fan:

Quote: "I used to like City, in truth most supporters of other clubs did, we all bought the "peoples club" publicity and felt sorry for you living in the shadow of Man Utd, but as soon as you had money you grasped it greedily at all costs."

I thought this type of mentality was reserved for the foreign fan who knew nothing about English football, it seems infectious on a larger scale than I first thought.

Peoples club?, if he means Manchester peoples club then anyone only need read the history books of football to realise we are the 'Citizens of Manchester'. I fail to understand the 'buying into it' comment considering no one was misled, clearly the lad has limited intelligence.

As for feeling sorry for us well news flash there, if they haven't realised in the last 44 years that we could not give a damn whether they like us or not then they probably never will. It's the 'sound of their own voice and can't see past their own nose syndromes', then there's the money issue.

Seems to me like they think we City fans had a say in who bought our club?, we apparently grasped greedily at the money?, says a fan of a club that spent a lot of cash through the nose for players and a stadium fit for Premier League football (well fit for the past anyway).

I have had the unfortunate opportunity to live a little too close to these Southampton fans, so found it as no surprise that they would rear their ugly mugs eventually.

The fool needs to do exactly what we have been telling other clubs fans to do, and concentrate on their own clubs instead of sticking their big fat noses into ours. Southampton FC's season ticket prices are more expensive than ours, now that is hilarious.

Welcome to the English Premier League scummers, you've spent too long in the lower league and it's a pity you didn't stay there.

Youth Trials

If you hadn't already noticed we have handed trials to:

16 year old Portuguese/Brazilian Attacking Midfielder Marco Lopes from S.L. Benfica, a promising young David Silva with a sweet left foot, you would be fooled by his stature when realising how young he actually is.

18 year old Croatian Striker Mario Jelovic from Hajduk Split, joined them in 08 and made his first and only appearance for them last season, has made several appearances for the Croatian U19's.

20 year old Isreali youngster Nir Biton, another U19 International but not as young from F.C. Ashdod, a 6ft5 Defencive Midfielder with the ability to score goals, has so far made two appearances for the senior Isreali national side.

Promising youngsters Center Mid Abdul Razak and Center Back Karim Rekik continue their fight for a first team place, as does Striker Luca Scapuzzi and Winger Vladimir Weiss though I am unconvinced Weiss's future lay with Manchester City.

20 year old French Midfielder Jeremy Helan also continues his fight for first team football after having a successful time for our Elite Development Squad, a left footed Mid confortable on the wing or as a defensive mid.

While everyone outside Manchester City whine and whinge about how we steal youth and are killing football, our club continue to develop potential that if fail to make enough impact. Will end up at another lucky club and continue their career, with the best wishes of City and us City fans.

Will be interesting to see if John Guidetti sticks with the first team this season, be a shame if he is loaned out again.

The most exciting because I am an Englishman and have followed him closely, is the final breakthrough into the senior setup of our young England striker Harry Bunn. He showed amazing promise at academy level, though had three unsuccessful loan stints at Oldham, Preston and Rochdale making a combined appearance count of 15 scoring 2 goals.

I wish to personally wish Harry and the rest of our youngsters all the best for the coming season.