Manchester City’s academy has produced some fantastic players over the years. Some of those are members of Pep Guardiola’s first-team squad.
Of course, Phil Foden is the most prominent of those, and he has become one of the best players in the Premier League, having been named the PFA Player of the Year last season. The likes of Rico Lewis and James McAtee are also playing for City’s first-team, with Lewis especially a key player.
Phil Foden
However, Cityzens academy graduates also go on to have good careers away from the club. Morgan Rogers is a prime example of this, and he is thriving under Unai Emery at Aston Villa. However, perhaps the best City academy star who is now shining at another club is Cole Palmer.
Palmer’s City career
Palmer’s rise over the last 18 months or so has been absolutely phenomenal. At present, there is arguably "no better player in the Premier League", according to pundit Jamie Carragher, while he is also now an important player for England, scoring in the Euro 2024 final against Spain.
Cole-Palmer-England-Euro-2024-Final
He did not really get the chance to show what he could do during his time at the Etihad Stadium. After graduating from the academy of the club for at under-18s and under-23s level, the 22-year-old managed just 41 appearances for the club in total.
Palmer scored six times and grabbed two assists, including a strike in the UEFA Super Cup and the Community Shield against Arsenal.
Manchester City's Cole Palmer celebrates scoring their first goal
He left the club to join Chelsea in September 2023 for a fee of £42.5m, and the attacker has been simply sensational at Stamford Bridge. Palmer has scored 32 goals and grabbed 20 assists in just 59 games for the Blues so far.
Last season, he managed 33 goals and assists in as many Premier League games, and won the PFA Young Player of the Year award.
Guardiola admitted that he wanted Palmer to stay at the club last season, but could not convince the talented winger to remain at the club. He was full of praise for the City academy graduate, calling him “an incredible threat” before the FA Cup semi-final between City and Chelsea last term.
Chelsea star Cole Palmer
Looking back on it, selling Palmer certainly seems like a blunder by City. However, given the attacking talent City have, the likes of Foden for example, it might not be too costly. There was another former player who they may regret selling more, especially given the issues in the side this season.
The former player City may regret selling
The player in question here is Spanish right-back Pedro Porro. The 25-year-old joined the Cityzens in 2019 for a fee in the region of £5.5m from Girona. However, he never played for the club and made a move to Sporting after a loan spell at Real Valladolid.
pedro-porro
He spent a year on loan in Portugal before joining the club permanently, costing just £7.2m, and thrived in Lisbon. In 98 games for the club, he scored 12 goals and grabbed 20 assists. Tottenham Hotspur signed him in the 2023 winter window, on a loan deal with an obligation to buy him for £39m.
The Spaniard has dazzled for the Lilywhites so far, playing 68 times for the club. He has scored nine goals and grabbed 12 assists, with one of the goals coming away to the Cityzens, in Spurs’ recent 4-1 thrashing of the Premier League champions.
City could certainly have done with Porro this season. They are having issues at right-back, with Kyle Walker looking a shadow of his former self. In fact, as the stats from Squawka show, the Spaniard is bettering the City number two in several key metrics.
That includes the number of chances created per 90 minutes, with 1.7 compared to one, and the number of duels won per game, with 3.9 to Walker’s 3.3. As football statistician Statman Dave described him, Porro is a "complete" player.
Porro vs. Walker key stats 2024/25 PL season
Stat (per 90)
Chances created
Take-ons completed
Duels won
Ground duels won
Clearances
Interceptions
Ball recoveries
Stats from Squawka
Looking back on the deal to sell Porro to Sporting in the first place, it might be one City regret more than the decision to let Palmer go. Whilst they have plenty of competition in those attacking areas, the Cityzens are short of numbers defensively, and given Walker’s performances this season, could have done with reinforcements.
Guardiola may well wish he had Porro available to him now because his fellow Spaniard could have been incredibly useful to help fix what has been a poor season so far.
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The Man City ace has been poor this season.