Man City academy improvement has been shown by Pep Guardiola transfer approach

Football is an impatient business, perhaps a reflection of wider society in the 21st century.

There is no time for patience in the modern game; expensive signings must immediately live up to their transfer fee, new managers must quickly get good results and young players are instantly heralded as the next great thing. With Manchester City and their City Football Academy, it's a similar story. Constructed and opened in 2014 to the tune of £200m, the CFA is one of the most impressive but expensive football facilities in the world.

With its 16 outdoor pitches, 7,000 capacity mini-stadium and state of the art gyms, physio and massage rooms, the 18-acre centre was built not merely to provide first-team players with the best facilities available, but to nurture the best young talents in world football. The traditional role of an academy is to produce top quality young players who can graduate to the first-team, living out the dreams of fans and giving a distinctly local flavour to the club.

ALSO READ: Man City are adopting Sir Alex Ferguson's best Man United philosophy with Raheem Sterling sale

These things take time of course, but as previously mentioned, football is not a patient business. As the years went by and none of City's academy players — apart from Kelechi Iheanacho — were able to make the jump from the CFA to the Etihad Stadium across the road. The club came under fire.

'What's the point of having that academy if they don't use the players?', came the cries. At the time it was hard to disagree, but this summer it is becoming clear just how valuable City's academy is — and it's not just about producing players that can play in Pep Guardiola's side.

The project was never about producing a starting 11 of academy