Manchester City have produced a number of wingers in recent years and the position has now aligned with the first team
BOLTON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 23: Ryan McAidoo of Manchester City Group Stage Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City U21 at Toughsheet Community Stadium on September 23, 2025 in Bolton, England. (Photo by Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
BOLTON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 23: Ryan McAidoo of Manchester City Group Stage Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City U21 at Toughsheet Community Stadium on September 23, 2025 in Bolton, England. (Photo by Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
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Manchester City's youngsters are always striving for the first team but in a way Pep Guardiola's side are just catching up with the academy again.
In recent years the youth teams have enjoyed great success in their leagues with speedy, dribbling wingers despite the days of Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling seemingly long gone. Brahim Diaz was part of the senior squad for a while but Jadon Sancho, Carlos Borges, Rabbi Matondo, Sam Edozie, Dire Mebude and Joel Ndala are all among the wide forwards who have stood out at youth level without seriously looking like breaking into Guardiola's plans.
That hasn't stopped City's academy from producing them though, and this particular profile of player appears to be back in fashion. Jeremy Doku is leading the charge for City accompanied by Savinho and Oscar Bobb and there is no shortage of players coming up behind them.
Reigan Heskey made his senior debut in the League Cup win at Huddersfield, 17-year-old Ryan McAidoo was on the bench for the Premier League game with Burnley and Christian Dunbar-McDonald is also catching the eye in the academy.
"We've got a really good group of wingers in this age group and the way the game is going at the moment with a lot of teams going man-for-man and pressing really aggressively these guys are going to be absolute gold dust in the next few years," said Under-21s coach Ben Wilkinson.
"For us, it's really important we keep developing them and work on their toolbox as a winger on how to succeed today and more importantly when you're up against first team players.
"Ryan, Reigan and Christian are all top 1vs1 wingers, all back themselves to go either way and are outstanding technically. It makes you quite expansive as a team and entertaining to watch.
"We're in a good place. As a club from the sporting director and manager we want to try and get as many players from our academy into the first team as possible. It's an incredibly tough level to reach consistently but that's what we have to push them to.
"That's why we're quite demanding with them and aggressive with what we expect from them. It's okay doing it here but they could be doing it in front of 60,000 and they want to be so if they're going to be in that position they need to know what they're doing.
"It's a reflection of the game at the moment that the demands on the modern day winger are all the stuff with the ball but without the ball is so important in terms of how they defend, how they connect with the team, how they defend spaces, how aggressive they can be in jumping from those spaces to put pressure on the backline.
"There's a lot to take on board and a lot to learn quickly, especially when they have done really well and there are opportunities at times in the first team. Ryan has so much talent but still plenty for us to work on."
McAidoo is a good example of a player who looks like he increasingly knows what he is doing. Signed from Chelsea's academy a year ago, it was obvious then that he had enormous potential but he also needed guidance; in one UEFA Youth League game last year the coaching from the sidelines was constant trying to get him making the right decisions.
A year on, with the benefit of individual coaching sessions that have become increasingly important in the academy curriculum, McAidoo knows more often than not when to make the difference. He returned to the Under-19s from the first-team bench against Burnley and tore Monaco apart in the UEFA Youth League this month with a stunning individual goal.
Clips of the solo effort that saw him sprint through, round the goalkeeper and leave a defender floored before smashing into an empty net have racked up hundreds of thousands of views on social media and it means McAidoo has made his mark on the competition. A chat with him afterwards though confirmed that Guardiola has left his mark on him.
"I still feel like there's things to work on as well I could have performed better in some areas, like with my defensive actions," he said. "It's never complete, there's always more to improve on.
"[Like] being defensively reliable so that when I hopefully go to the first team Pep looks at me as a reliable player defensively and offensively. If I work on defensive actions, hopefully everything will be alright."
Sancho was a trailblazer for his generation when he left City's academy to play first team football at Dortmund aged just 17, with a number of youngster taking that path to kickstart their senior careers. City have benefitted from that financially, although their greatest academy success story is one of patience as Phil Foden bided his time before growing in the first team to become the best player in the Premier League in the 2023/24 season.
McAidoo's move from Chelsea to City signals his ambition, but just as he is learning when to take defenders on in a game he is happy to wait for the right moment to impress Guardiola as he starts to train more regularly with the first team.
"Nowadays it's quite often so I'm grateful for the opportunity," he said. "There's a lot of players who want to be doing what I'm doing at the moment so I just need to stay humble and keep working
"It was great to see other teammates make their debut at Huddersfield. Hopefully that's me soon but I just need to stay patient.
"Obviously decision-making can't always be perfect. Sometimes you feel you want to do more but it's not always the right time to do it. It's about staying patient on the pitch.
"It's just about picking the moments, there's always right moments for everything so stay patient, do what you're told and hopefully it will get you somewhere."