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Manchester City Linked With Move for Town Academy Schoolboy
Tuesday, 29th Nov 2016 14:40

Manchester City are reported to be targeting highly-rated Town academy schoolboy Ben Knight.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the Premier League side are hopeful of signing Knight, who plays for the Blues U15s and has also been involved with the England set-up, having kept tabs on him for some months. TWTD understands that City are far from the 14-year-old's only admirers.

Knight, a diminutive left-footed number 10, was named the Player of the Tournament at the Galway Cup in the summer.

Town are understood to be optimistic that they could rebuff any interest from City, whose U15s are coached by Mark Kennedy, who was previously in charge of the Blues’ U23s, or elsewhere but would be due considerable compensation if Knight, who has agreed a long-term deal at Playford Road, were to move on.

In July, promising 16-year-old striker Charlie Brown joined Chelsea for a figure which is still to be confirmed but is expected to be around £650,000 with manager Mick McCarthy admitting that it’s difficult to hold on to youngsters if big Premier League clubs come in for them and the player wants to go.

“It’s always frustrating to lose them at whatever age. At whatever stage they’re at you don’t want to lose them,” McCarthy said.

“It’s just one of those things, you can’t do anything about it. You have to just make the best deal you can.”


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legoman added 14:50 - Nov 29
If we get some money for him can we spend it on cleaning up our shyte heap of a ground please?
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12th_Man added 15:20 - Nov 29
FFS can't keep hold of 1st team players now we're getting rid of the academy players. This club is a joke
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solemio added 15:40 - Nov 29
12th Man, do please try not to be any sillier than you can help.
13

MattinLondon added 15:42 - Nov 29
If a big club wants to poach our best young players - and if both the player and his family want to move — then there is very little the club can do about it. Yes its depressing but that's modern football.

Think the only way that a younger player will be stay at the club (despite PL interest) is if the player himself sees a clear pathway to the first team. Currently the younger players seem not to be allowed the same amount of bad games as their more trusted older colleagues.

The PL is clearly the best place for younger talent to develop and this is clearly evident in the fact that the technical and tactical awareness of younger players is now world class — maybe not. Also the fact that the PL now dominates European competition points to the fact that the best young players can learn from the best in that league — hand on again. And of course England now has a fantastic young team — oh….
9

SpiritOfJohn added 15:44 - Nov 29
Good grief, I forgot about Charlie Brown. At least he didn't go for peanuts...
21

jpring89 added 15:55 - Nov 29
Difficult choice. Peps brand of football or micks.
7

Tractorchef added 15:58 - Nov 29
We need to make sure that we show these youngsters that if good enough, they'll get their chance in the first team at this club, otherwise what's the incentive to stay?
13

muhrensleftfoot added 16:43 - Nov 29
It surprises me that young academy schoolboys want to go to the likes of Man City or Chelsea. Surely they have more chance of breaking through at a club like ours. Teddy Bishop, Josh Emmanuel, Myles Kemlock, Andre Dozzell wouldn't be anywhere near the 1st team at Man City. Probably not even at Reserve level.
9

jas0999 added 17:28 - Nov 29
Sadly, you have to wish these players well and move on, because there is little we can do to hold on to them. What we can do however is fully reinvest the money into the first team. I'm sure Evans will ... Interesting we didn't hear too much about the money bought in for Brown.
5

Mark added 17:35 - Nov 29
If we had several academy players making it to the first team and holding their places, it would be easier to hold onto very young players as they could see a route to success in front of them.
9

grumpyoldman added 17:39 - Nov 29
jpring89 I get your point, but hopefully MM will be a distant memory before young Ben is read for the first team
3

happybeingblue added 17:56 - Nov 29
clubs like man city and chelski ruin english youngsters they are everything that is bad for kids coming through i feel they only buy them to stop other clubs progressing, look how many chelsea have that they never play ... stay here son and play football !! just look at the list of english players signed as youngsters by city and chelsea and judge for yourself.
14

martin587 added 18:02 - Nov 29
It may only be "pie in the sky" about the young lad,but we must be doing right at the club to get noticed by the Big Boys.
6

Scuzzer added 18:38 - Nov 29
It is vitally important these youngsters get the right advice at this important point in their fledgling careers. They need to be made aware of their long term targets. Going to the likes of Man City is just a waste of their careers, where expensive foreign players can be parachuted in ahead of them. These clubs are killing our national team off by attrition, slowly strangling the supply of international quality youngsters. Just don't do it, for all our sakes.
7

marcusevans added 18:47 - Nov 29
Perhaps the FA (or FIFA) should ensure that these contracts include a clause that allows the "selling club" first refusal to buy back the player at the same price that they were sold for. So when the player inevitably cannot make the Chelsea/Man City first team they have to return to the club that nurtured them from a very young age.
8

Michael11 added 19:19 - Nov 29
What's happening with this Category 1 status we were really pushing for? We failed by something ridiculous like 1% so why isn't that ongoing? To be fair, the boy has more chance of Guardiola picking him for City aged 14 than McCarthy picking him for ITFC aged 18.
0

CavendishBlue added 19:35 - Nov 29
Phil/Gav

Would I be right in saying that had we achieved Cat.1 status for the academy then different rules would have applied to these kind of approaches?
1

corkblue added 21:53 - Nov 29
Teflon Mick will no doubt hold court!
1

BrettenhamBlue added 07:50 - Nov 30
Let's just make sure we get another significant amount
0

Currie10 added 08:56 - Nov 30
Take Alex Henshall, supposedly very promising at Swindon - joined Man City, probably got a good pay rise and what happened next? Mick gave the lad a chance - to be fair I thought him and Mings looked very good down the left wing at Derby when Teddy Bishop well and truly arrived however since leaving us he played twice for Kilmarnock and is unattached.

Up to the player - some will make it big time at these big clubs, but the %%% is ridiculously low.

What does however appear evident is our academy is churning out talents - there is only one real way we can keep the main ones - and that is promotion.
0

LordMamu added 13:32 - Nov 30
What an agonising choice it must be for Ben! Do I stay and learn to play dire negative football at an unambitious Championship club in front of ever-dwindling crowds coached by a man with all the charisma of a boiled potato or do I move to a Champions club coached by a multi-lingual urbane leader in his field playing innovative exciting football? Tricky one.
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