Manchester City have been closely linked with a lot of young talents hailing from all over Europe, the most recent one being Adriá Bernabé from Barcelona. The 16-year-old has already expressed his wishes to quit the Blaugrana after this season and has reportedly already agreed on pre-contractual terms with the Premier League champions.
The sports manager, Pep Segura and director of professional training, Jose Mari Bakero have failed to convince Bernabe and his representatives, Carles Puyol and Ivan de la Peña in signing an extension. Barcelona were also prepared to offer more money but alas Bernabe’s mind seems to be set on the prospects of English football.
Manchester City along with Arsenal have been monitoring the youngster for months only to pounce upon the opportunity now. Bernabe’s teammate Robert Navarro has also been approached by the two Premier League outfits and might just follow in the former’s shoes.
Adria Bernabe spent his primitive years with the Espanyol youth academy and later signed with the Catalan giants when he was just 12. His advanced technical skills along with the vision to find players up front earned him high praise among the Barca ranks. Bernabe has shown promise with the ball under his feet and is one of the most valued young players at La Masia. His trophy cabinet which is filled with countless individual awards speaks volumes of his abilities.
Obviously, this will be a massive acquisition by City if the player ends up signing on the dotted line in the next few weeks. But how fruitful will it be for Bernabe?
The Citizens are known to have created a state-of-the-art youth development facility with their relatively newfound cash all thanks to the owner, Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and it has produced remarkable talents like Phil Foden, Brahim Diaz, Bersant Celina, Pablo Maffeo and Brandon Barker.
However, out of all the 5 named, only two have managed to feature for the City squad this season and that too on extremely rare occasions. There was an uproar among the football pundits when Pep Guardiola decided to name only 6 substitutes in the league game against Burnley in early February.
The criticism might have been deserved which exposed the manager’s reluctance to operate with any player less than a world-class status. The results that he has delivered are beyond impressive but it has left little room for hopeful youngsters to grow into top-tier professionals.
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These are not ideal signs for rising athletes to look forward to. As recent reports claim, Guardiola is expected to mend his ways and give more playing time to Foden and Diaz the following season. Let us hope for the sake of Bernabe and the rest of promising stars that he keeps his word.
