Manchester City have mishandled some bright young talents in recent years.
Indeed, City haven’t had the best track record of helping their young stars blossom.
The decision to sell Morgan Rogers in 2023 was inexcusable, while Cole Palmer left City in 2023 only to become a superstar later down the line.
Letting Romeo Lavia leave was a mistake too, and while Jadon Sancho has had his ups and downs, Sancho was still a talented player in City’s academy and went on to become and England international.
Now, another England international has revealed that they had a brief spell in the Man City youth system.
Indeed, speaking on EFL Unfiltered, Phil Jagielka has revealed that he had a trial at City, but he didn’t quite like how City dealt with him as he moved between age groups and was messed around in terms of scheduling.
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
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Phil Jagielka had a trial at Manchester City
The 40-time England international spoke about his time at City as a youngster.
Jagielka says he had a trial at City after someone he knew from Everton to join the academy structure.
However, Jagielka didn’t enjoy his time at City and would eventually go to join the Sheffield United system.
“Then I went on trial at Man City, because one of the academy people had left Everton and gone to Man City.
“So again, when I went to Man City on trial there, obviously, conference was a little bit low.
“So I trained and played with my school year.
‘I did okay. I’d say okay loosely. I was probably rubbish, but okay.
‘And then the next week I got a phone call saying, oh no, it’s now a home game, not an away game. So I’ve turned up and now I’m training, if you like, with my year below. Does that make sense?
‘Yeah. So it’s a difficult one to play.
“It’s in your head. You’re trying to work out what do I have to do?
“Am I not good enough to be with ones my own age? And have I ever been demoted?
“So they did it a little bit sneakily, it didn’t sit well with me.”
What John Stones said about Phil Jagielka
Jagielka may have never played for Manchester City, but he has had some serious influence on the City backline over the years.
Indeed, two of City’s defensive mainstays over the years initially honed their craft next to Jagielka for Everton.
Joleon Lescott was Phil Jagielka’s centre-back partner for Everton and England for a decent period, while John Stones was Jagielka’s protégé at Everton during his early career.
In fact, Stones even praised Jagielka for helping him during his early days at Everton.
“There’s always little things Jags will tell me or I see him doing in training,” Stones said, via The Mirror,
“His experience is rubbing off and I can’t thank him enough.”
“But I want to give the boss a problem to choose his side when Jags is back fit.”
In another world, Jagielka and Stones could have potentially have been a centre-back partnership at City, but Jagielka decided against joining the club after his trial as a youngster.