Shea Charles - players.bio

Southampton are not the only club to base their transfer policy on Manchester City's finely-tuned approach - but they are the most obvious.

Some sides have looked at City's multi-club model, while others have realised there is value to be made in sniffing around the City Football Academy for players who are not quite good enough for Pep Guardiola's first team. Get it right, and there can be serious profit to be made by snapping up City academy talent.

A couple of years ago, the going rate for a City academy was about £10m. That fee is closer now to the £20m mark for the best talent, with Cole Palmer's £42m switch to Chelsea an academy record but also a tantalising glimpse of the raw potential hiding within the Etihad Campus.

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City have earned almost £200m in transfer fees from selling academy players in just three summers. In add-ons, that figure surpasses the double-hundred million mark and plenty of players are thriving in the top two divisions.

Of the incomings, Southampton have been responsible for sending £72m into City's bank accounts. Having appointed City's former head of academy recruitment Joe Shields in 2022 as their head of senior recruitment, Saints raided the CFA for Romeo Lavia (£10.5m), Gavin Bazunu (£12m), Samuel Edozie (£5m) and Juan Larios (£6m). That was £32m upfront, rising to £39m in add-ons, plus the standard sell-on clauses and buy-back options included in most sales.

Then they took City academy director Jason Wilcox to double down on their approach, before returning to City for Shea Charles (£10.5m, rising to

Cole Palmer Pep Guardiola Gavin Bazunu Romeo Lavia Shea Charles Jason Wilcox