Hit or Miss: Were Man City right to sell Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer and other top academy talents?

Guardiola has seen just as many talented players come through the academy in his nearly 10 years at Manchester City, but there is a key difference between the two clubs, as the bulk of the youngster to have come through at City have failed to establish themselves as regulars in his first team. While Nico O'Reilly, Rico Lewis and academy poster boy Phil Foden have gone on to do great things for their boyhood clubs, they are in a tiny minority.

When Guardiola's side face Aston Villa on Sunday, they will come up against one of the biggest success stories of all the players to have left the club: Morgan Rogers, who left City in 2023 for Middlesbrough but has since gone on to become one of the most important players for Villa and a genuine rival to Jude Bellingham in the England squad.

Rogers is far from alone in going on to prove his former employers wrong since walking out of the doors of the City Football Academy (CFA). As Guardiola said last month, "Imagine the amount of players who unfortunately left. They were top, top-class players and could not have the space [in the team]. My God, the starting XI you could have right now in the first team if you start to count the incredible players in other clubs that was educated and played here in Man City and in the academy."

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