Fernandinho sees the future and makes Man City prediction after trophy-laden season

Rival fans with a masochistic streak, who insisted on watching Manchester City players cavorting around the Etihad Stadium on Sunday might have felt daunted about the future. After all, the squad which just proved itself the best in the country, and became only the third team ever to top 150 goals in a season, will add a 25-30 goals a season striker to their ranks.

But if they had surveyed the scene carefully, and seen a small group of youngsters kitted out in City tracksuits, standing a little awkwardly on the fringes of the champagne-spraying and general malarkey, their hearts may have sunk a little further into their boots. The young men in question were Nico O’Reilly, Rico Lewis, Shea Charles and Lakyle Samuel.

They were clutching the rest of City’s haul for the season - the Under-17 Premier League Cup, Under-18 Premier League trophy, Premier League 2 trophy and Under-16 Premier League Cup. It was a sure sign that the prediction of City’s then head of academy Mark Allen, back in 2011-12, that it would be a decade before the investment and planning that had been pumped into his department truly started to pay dividends.

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He was not talking about winning trophies, but rather the prime aim of the academy, which is to produce players for the first team. Last season, eight academy products made their first-team debuts, more than at any time in the last 50 years.

That figure is slightly skewed by the fact that Pep Guardiola’s response to a defensive injury crisis for the Carabao Cup game against Wycombe was to field a back four of CJ Egan-Riley, Luke Mbete, Finley Burns and Josh Wilson-Esbrand, but the stat stands.

And when you scratch beneath the surface of those