City just don’t provide a first team pathway for youngsters. No matter how good they are. The exception is Foden, but even he is not a first team starter there and he’d start for virtually any other team in the league and be a key player.
The money aspect is hard to ignore too. Former City employees at Chelsea and Southampton paying massive fees for City youngsters. Everything about City stinks to the high heavens. From their charges to their sponsors who don’t exist etc. It’s really gross. English football is fundamentally broken.
Usually I’d be upset seeing a rival lift the treble but it was hard to register an emotional response other than a shrug and general contempt that it counts for nothing. I suppose once it sinks in that the governing body is going to end up doing nothing about it all, then maybe the disgust will become more visceral rage. City will find a way out. Just like when they were found guilty by UEFA but got off the hook because of the statute of limitations in UEFA’s own charter.
But none of this is the fault of Palmer, who is a good player. Nothing he’s done says he is worth what’s been paid. He may well fulfill his promise and turn out to be a good deal but on face value, the number of appearances and general impact, especially when judged against other transfers - even in this inflated market - makes this fee look extremely shady.
I really disagree with this post.
They are doing what well-managed clubs do. Quickly identifying players who won’t make it at City or need years to make it (let’s be fair, pretty much everyone won’t make it) and selling them while they are promising and thus their stock is high. Then reusing that money to buy players who are already good enough for City.
Even assuming that Palmer is a talent of the same level as Alvarez, it makes sense for them to buy Alvarez and sell Palmer, leaving them with 30m to spend.
I know that them being so good have made us so bitter (Caf nowadays reads like RAWK a decade ago), but I do not think there is anything fishy in this. Southampton pretty much got back all the money they gave to City in Lavia.
If we had a bit of foresight we would have been operating the same. There was a time where we could have gotten really good money for the likes of Henderson or Williams. We could have gotten 30m for McTominay this season too. But we usually keep players far past their expiry date, so obviously we won’t get good money for them.