Man City's never-ending supply of talent gives 27 players to watch this season

Year on year, Manchester City's academy continues to surprise.

One of the first visions of owner Sheikh Mansour was to build an academy system that developed first-team-ready players from within, and that decade-long plan has really started to show its worth in recent seasons.

Phil Foden is the obvious case study, although there is now an increasing number of academy players following him into the first team set-up. These are players who have been trained in City's technical style for over 10 years, and are ready to challenge for a place in Pep Guardiola's side. This summer, more than any other, has provided varying levels of players ready for sale, ready for the first team, or ready to push up an age-group as others move on.

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Chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak proudly boasted this summer that a majority of City's academy players are from the local area, while they have achieved around £30m in academy player sales alone this summer as Gavin Bazunu, Romeo Lavia, Darko Gyabi and Aro Muric have left on permanent deals.

When assessing the players still in the academy, it's fair to split the latest prospects into five categories - from first-team contenders, to key Elite Development Squad options, and under-18s who will be looking to make this a breakthrough season.

Ask any City fan which academy prospect they are most excited to see this season and they will likely reply with Cole Palmer's name. An exciting winger not short of confidence, Palmer has been one of the U23 standouts for the last two seasons, scoring a range of goals, impressing with his eye for a pass, and contributing a few assists, too.

Spending much of last season in the first-team