Tommy Doyle's permanent transfer to Wolves, confirmed this week, is not a surprise. He's been out on loan for three seasons, and an option to buy had already been agreed when he moved to Molineux on loan for the season in September. This week he became the latest Manchester City academy graduate to move on and raise millions for the club in return.
If anything, the £4.5m fee undervalues a player with almost 100 senior appearances, earned promotion from the Championship last year, and has 30 Premier League outings this term. He is an FA Youth Cup winner, an under-21 European Champion, and has seven City appearances under Pep Guardiola.
But, as Guardiola rightly put it on Friday, not everyone who comes through the ranks can play for City. Even a title-winning captain at youth level with serious family pedigree in the form of two Blues legends as his grandfathers.
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Doyle, however, represents the typical academy graduate who has left the CFA. Successful at youth level to the point where he made his debut, before embarking on a carefully-selected programme of loans to prepare him for senior football. A spell at Hamburg wasn't working, so it was cut short and Doyle was able to show his quality at Cardiff.
Promotion at Sheffield United followed and then a step up to the Premier League with Wolves. With each move, Doyle has improved to a point where he can be sold as a Premier League player.
As a graduate, Doyle also represents pure profit when it comes to Financial Fair Play, adding to the millions of pounds raised from the
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Tommy Doyle