Sometimes it pays to have faith in youth.
We’ve all become familiar with Man City’s outrageous spending power in recent years.
They are the footballing equivalent of that blazer wearing chap who forks out £120 for a bottle of Grey Goose in the club on payday.
Riyad Mahrez is the latest big-money arrival at the Etihad, with the Citizens breaking their club record to sign the Algerian from Leicester.
Much of City’s spending spree last summer was based on them forking out a small country’s GDP on full-backs.
Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy joined for a combined £100million, as Pep Guardiola looked to blow the competition out of the water.
It turns out however that the solution to their wing-back problem was once right under their nose.
A far more cost effective solution…
Yes, we know.
Kieran Trippier was once a City player, marauding up and down the line in an oversized sky blue shirt.
Bury-born Trippier came through the youth ranks at City after joining the academy at the age of nine.
He went onto sign his first professional contract with the club in 2007 and was part of their FA Youth Cup winning side in 2008.
Trippier even joined up with the first-team for their pre-season tour of the United States in the summer of 2010.
After failing to make a single first-team appearance at City, he signed for Burnley in 2012 where he became an immediate fan’s favourite.
Spurs then snapped up the wing-back for as little as £3.5million in 2015. What a steal.
His emergence at the north London club then gave Spurs an incentive to cash in on Kyle Walker, allowing him to move onto Trippier’s former club.
The deal rounded off a strange transfer merry-go-round.
Trippier’s technical ability and athleticism makes him every part a Pep Guardiola player.
The wing-back has become a cult hero following his performances for England at the World Cup and is the name on everybody’s lips right now.
The Spurs man netted his first international goal in the Three Lion’s semi-final defeat to Croatia, expertly placing a free-kick into the top corner.
His performances at the tournament gave City’s fans and the club’s hierarchy a glimpse of what could have been.
What could have been had they shown just a bit more faith in their young prospect.
Yes, admittedly City won the double after forking out big on Walker, however where is the romance in that?
Trippier is just as capable as Walker in the right wing-back role and proved that by keeping his former team mate out of that position for England.
Fans would rather see their home-grown talent playing a part in their success. Where’s the pride in forking out bucket-loads for trophies?
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Trippier will no doubt be a player on the radar of many of Europe’s elite clubs.
We’ve even got a sneaky feeling he could well become the latest Galactico.
After all, Real Madrid did once sign Julien Faubert.
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