Hit or Miss: Were Man City right to sell Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer and other top academy talents?

Ever wondered why Rogers and Palmer both do the 'ice cold' celebration after scoring? The pair were thick as thieves as City academy team-mates between 2019 and 2021, and each scored in the 2020 FA Youth Cup final against Chelsea. But there is no question that Palmer shone brightest at that level. Rogers, playing on the opposite wing, played half the number of games and was far less productive, contributing to just 12 goals. 

And while Palmer was fast-tracked into the first team, Rogers was sent out on loan to Lincoln City and Blackpool, both in League One, and Bournemouth in the Championship before joining Middlesbrough in the summer of 2023. It moulded him into the brilliant player who won the PFA Young Player of the Year award for his first full season at Villa. 

But while City would have loved to have had the current version of Rogers, the truth is no one questioned him leaving at the time. Not even Rogers, who admitted last month: "I wasn’t good enough, simple as that. I wasn’t ready, I wasn't ready to be there, I wasn't myself, I wasn't the person that they signed in terms of what they expected me to go on and be. Yeah, it wasn't the right player at the right time for me or the club."

Verdict: Hit

Palmer, above any other City academy player in the 21st century, is the one that got away. And while other players exploded after leaving City, Palmer was doing it while on their books and they knew exactly how good he was.

He scored 42 goals and set up a further 19 in 61 games for the Under-18s and Under-21s while he took his chances in the first team, contributing to a goal every 185 minutes despite most of his appearances coming off the bench. City could see exactly how good Palmer was becoming just before they let him leave for Chelsea as he scored in two of his final three games for the club, in the Community Shield and UEFA Super Cup.

Still, not many City fans were complaining about the £42m fee they received when Palmer left and his rise at Chelsea took many by surprise, as he scored 22 Premier League goals and set up 11 in his first campaign.

Palmer could have been Kevin De Bruyne's heir at the Etihad Stadium and filled the gap of a having a highly productive winger to replace Riyad Mahrez. And imagine the pride among supporters seeing Palmer emulate Foden as the local academy boy who developed into a first-team star.

Verdict: Miss

Jeremie Frimpong moved from Amsterdam to Manchester aged seven with his mother and his six siblings, and two years later he enrolled in City's academy. He remained there for nine years, but he felt held back as he would play in one age group below his own.

When he wanted to discuss a new contract in 2019, Frimpong was bluntly told he was too small and not physical enough for the senior team, while he was also compared to players in his age group who had made more progress. Frimpong instead left for Celtic, where he played regularly and developed into the high-flying right-back he is today.

When he was playing a pivotal role in Bayer Leverkusen's romp to the Bundesliga title in 2024, many City fans began to wonder if they had made a mistake overlooking him. Those feelings became more pronounced last term when the team had no consistent right-back due to Kyle Walker's nose-diving performances while Frimpong joined title rivals Liverpool for £29.5m in the summer. 

Verdict: Miss

Michael Olise is a man of few words, but he has let his performances do the talking of late to devastating effect. He has gone from being rejected by some of the biggest clubs around in Arsenal, Chelsea and City to becoming one of the leading lights for Bayern Munich and a regular supplier of goals for Harry Kane.

Olise arrived at City aged 15 after being rejected by Chelsea, but he did not make the grade and spent just one season at the CFA, dropping down a level with his next move by joining Reading. There he excelled and within two years he was in the Royals' senior team, soon tearing it up in the Championship. 

Crystal Palace subsequently snapped him up for £8m, a bargain considering that three years later they would sell him to Bayern for £52m. Olise notched 17 goals and 17 assists while winning the Bundesliga title in his first season at the Allianz Arena, and this term he has picked up where he left off, prompting City and the other big clubs who sent him packing to ponder exactly how they failed to spot his talent.

Verdict: Miss

Jadon Sancho spent just two years at City, but it was at the CFA where he took the big step from promising youngster into potential generational talent after joining from Watford. Sancho ripped rivals, including his future employers Manchester United, to shreds for the U18s alongside Foden, but grew frustrated when he was not taken on the first-team's tour of the United States in 2017 while Foden was given the nod.

Sancho stopped attending training sessions and negotiated an £8m ($10m) move to Borussia Dortmund without ever playing for the City first team. In Germany, he exploded into one of the most exciting youngsters in the world, scoring 17 goals and providing 17 assists in a single campaign. It led to him landing a £74m move to United, from which City pocketed an additional £10m due to a sell-on clause. 

And while Sancho's progress with Dortmund provoked plenty of questions at the time about the wisdom of letting him leave, his career path since returning to England (being bombed out of United, disappointing on loan at Chelsea and now barely featuring for Aston Villa) has vindicated City's decision.

Verdict: Hit

Jamie Gittens took the opposite route to Olise, joining City as a 14-year-old after impressing for Reading's youth sides. He was admired by City's youth coaches but got itchy feet having seen how Sancho - with whom he shared an agent - had turbocharged his career by swapping Manchester for Dortmund. Gittens moved to Dortmund in the same summer as Jude Bellingham and got to share a dressing room with Erling Haaland for two years.

He took his time to break through in Germany, but Gittens made a name for himself last season with 12 goals and five assists. Like Sancho before him, his exploits earned him a big-money move back to England as Chelsea signed him for a fee rising to £52m, and his return to his home country is following an eerily similar path to his old team-mate and role model, with him having made a slow start at Stamford Bridge, only making it into Enzo Maresca's XI in two league games so far. 

Verdict: Hit

The son of Stoke City's long-throw extraordinaire Rory, Liam Delap moved to City in 2019 at the age of 16 after being scouted by Joe Shields, the club's head of academy recruitment who had also brought Sancho and Gittens to the club among a host of other young talents. Delap played in the same Youth Cup-winning team as Palmer and Rogers while he was promoted to the U23s when he was only 17. And unlike many of the talented youngsters to come through the ranks at the CFA, he was given first-team football by Guardiola.

"He's the type of striker we don’t have," Guardiola said in 2022. "He is a killer, a typical British striker, an incredible finisher. He has a special quality. He is a different type of striker."

Delap had the misfortune to suffer an ankle injury soon after his debut which kept him out of action for five months, and in the meantime City signed Haaland. Delap subsequently went out on three separate loans in the Championship before eventually being sold to Ipswich Town for £20m. 

He proved his Premier League quality with the Tractor Boys and earned a £30m move to Chelsea, although an injury in his third game of the season has prevented him from making an impression at Stamford Bridge yet. Given City have not exactly been lacking for goals thanks to Haaland, they should have no regrets about cashing in on Delap.

Verdict: Hit

Romeo Lavia moved to City from Belgian giants Anderlecht aged 16 and did not take long to impress his coaches. He was soon promoted to the U23s and within a year had made his debut for Guardiola's first team in the Carabao Cup. The club decided to cash in on him, though, when they sold four players to Southampton in the summer of 2022. 

Lavia's sale saw City pocket £14.5m, and they then earned an extra £10m when Chelsea signed him for £58m just one year later. Lavia had a torrid start to to life at Chelsea, playing just 32 minutes of Premier League football in his first campaign due to injuries. He has since recovered but has so far proven to be little more than a squad player, meaning City have had no second thoughts about moving him on when they did.

Verdict: Hit

Pedro Porro is one of several City signings who not only never played for the first team but barely trained with them either. The Spanish full-back joined the Cityzens from fellow City Football Group club Girona in 2019 for £11m but went straight out on loan to Real Valladolid. A year later, he joined Sporting CP on loan with a £7m option to buy. 

The Portuguese side exercised it a year later, meaning City swallowed a £4m loss. Porro later joined Tottenham, and although he badly struggled in his first season, he has since grown into one of the most exciting and consistent full-backs in the Premier League at a time when City badly need a reliable right-back.

Porro has also haunted City on several occasions, starring in Tottenham's 4-0 win at the Etihad last season and their 2-0 victory early in this campaign.

Verdict: Miss

Brahim Diaz played a grand total of 50 Premier League minutes for City, but that was enough to convince Real Madrid to snap him up for an initial £15m ($19m). It was a huge leap of faith in a 19-year-old, and the move came too early for Diaz, who struggled to get many minutes with Los Blancos in the following 18 months.

He fared much better when he moved to AC Milan on loan and played a big part in the Rossoneri's first Serie A title for 11 years in 2022. One year later, he returned to Madrid, where he has developed into a reliable squad player when called upon. 

He haunted City when he scored against his former club last season as Madrid came from behind to win 3-2 in the first leg of their Champions League knockout play-off tie. Despite that goal, there are few fans or City representatives who think they did the wrong thing by letting him leave.

Verdict: Hit