Youth football is in Pep Guardiola's blood. He emerged from Barcelona's famed La Masia academy and then took his first steps as a coach after being appointed manager of the Catalans' B team all the way back in 2007. When he became first-team coach at Camp Nou one year later, he promoted the likes of Sergio Busquets and Pedro, plus the returning Gerard Pique, as Barca swept to the treble in style.
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."
GOAL takes a look at the best players who came through City's youth ranks but never made the cut, assessing whether the club was right or wrong to let them leave...