Two Barcelona players are justifying Man City transfer gambles - and more may follow

Eyebrows may have been raised when two Manchester City youngsters ran down their contracts in the space of six months to join Barcelona. Not anymore.

Eric Garcia was the first to tell City he wanted to leave, with the club deciding not to accept a bid for the centre-back in 2020 from Barcelona and instead deciding that he could leave on a free the following year. This January, after Ferran Torres made the same decision about his City future, the Blues cashed in and tripled their money on the Spain international.

It was disappointing to lose both bright talents, but City haven't exactly missed them in the last season. Now, both Garcia and Torres are at the forefront of Barcelona's revival under Xavi and showing they were right to leave City's all-conquering side under Pep Guardiola for a rebuild project in Spain.

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Starting with Garcia, the centre-back had caught the eye of the Spanish national team, but was at least fifth-choice at City and wasn't in line to get much more game time. The Blues wanted to keep him, but Garcia's mind was set on a return to Barcelona, and the only decision to make was whether to accept Barca's offer in September 2020 or keep him and allow him to leave on a free transfer at the end of that season.

After seeing Aymeric Laporte's long-term injury and John Stones' poor form drag Fernandinho and Garcia into defence in the previous year, City were reluctant to leave their backline light even with the additions of Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake. They set an asking price of £20m, but Barcelona's highest offer fell £2m short and it was deemed Garcia could offer better value as back-up for 2020/21.

As it happened, he