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Since being acquired by Middle Eastern owners, Manchester City has become one of the biggest clubs in England and the world. As much as it pains me to say this as a Manchester United fan - City has the best squad in the Premier League at the moment.
Pep Guardiola has transformed the CItizens into a team that combines footballing aesthetics with machine-like consistency. They are fighting for four trophies this term, which is a frightening prospect for fans of all other clubs in the Premier League, let alone United.
They also have set up one of the most prolific football academies in the country. However, not all of their bright prospects make it to the first team, as the sales of Jadon Sancho and Brahim Diaz have shown.
Let's take a look at at a few players you'd be surprised to know were on the books of the noisy neighbours.
#5 Wayne Hennessey
Man City have had their fair share of troubles with keepers, with Guardiola deeming Joe Hart not good enough with his feet, and his successor Claudio Bravo's horror performances. They now have a tremendous keeper in Ederson, but you'd be surprised to know they had Crystal Palace & Wale's goalie, Wayne Hennessey. The man from Bangor, however, was nowhere near the first team and left the club aged 16 for Wolves.
The Welshman was one of the few keepers to have kept a clean sheet against City in their record-breaking 2017-18 season and played a key role in Palace's 2-3 win at the Etihad in the 2018-19 season (remember THAT goal from Andros Townsend?).
Had he not left City, he'd have been fighting Joe Hart for the number one spot for a few seasons and would certainly have had at least some Premier League medals by now.
#4 Rony Lopes
City signed Bernardo Silva for a whopping £50 million and Benjamin Mendy for a world record £52 million from AS Monaco. However, they'd wish Rony Lopes hadn't made the reverse journey.
This is not to say that Man City don't have players in the class of the Portuguese sensation on their books, because of course, they do. It'd be very difficult for the lad from Belem to get into this City squad, let alone be a regular starter for the club.
But having watched Lopes put in spectacular performances one after another in the 2017-18 season, City would look at his sale to the principality club with a sense of regret. He scored 15 league goals from midfield for Monaco, playing every game in the process.
Having signed a 16-year-old Lopes in 2011 from Benfica, City sold the Brazil-born attacking midfielder in 2015 for a paltry £9 million.
#3 Kieran Trippier
Bury-born Kieran Trippier, who scored THAT sublime freekick against Croatia in the 2018 World Cup semifinal, joined City's academy aged just 9 years old in the year 2000. He signed his first professional contract with City in 2007 but failed to make a breakthrough to their first team.
He was then loaned out to Barnsley in 2010 and subsequently to Burnley in 2011, who made his contract permanent in January 2012. Under Sean Dyche, the ginger Mourinho, he was instrumental in guiding Burnley to the Premier League in 2014 and signed for Tottenham Hotspur for a paltry £3.5 million a year later.
To put this into perspective, City paid Spurs £50 million for Kyle Walker, who Trippier is sparring with to be the best right-back/right wing-back in the Premier League.
They could have saved millions of that middle eastern oil money, had they been patient with their academy product!
#2 Adrian Rabiot
Adrien Rabiot was once on Manchester City's roster.
Yeah, you heard it right!
City signed a 13-year-old Rabiot in 2008 from French side Creteil. However, the northeast of England proved too much of a culture shock for the teenager, and the infamously damp Manchester weather proved too much as the young lad headed back to sunny France just six months later.
The Saint-Maurice born midfielder, who famously rejected being in Didier Deschamps' reserves list for the 2018 World Cup, could have been a pivotal player (he's much better than the fragile Ilkay Gundogan in my opinion) for the Citizens had things worked out differently.
With Rabiot running down his contract at Paris Saint-Germain whose gentleman's agreement with FC Barcelona was allegedly broken by the Catalan giants due to his off-field antics, could next season see the return of the (not-so) prodigal son?
#1 Loris Karius
Yeah, the Loris Karius!
The biggest surprise of the lot, Loris Karius, used to be a Man City youth team player.
Signed from VfB Stuttgart as a 16-year- old in 2009, the Liverpool goalie played for City's youth team for two years.
Much maligned due to his bad performance for the scousers, most notably on the biggest stage of them all, the Champions League final, Karius was then sold to Jurgen Klopp's former side, Mainz 05, from where the all action, fist thumping, compulsive player hugging manager signed him for Liverpool in 2016 for just £4.7 million.
However, on the back of his performance against a rampaging Real Madrid, powered by the talismanic Gareth Bale, a game in which he had suffered a concussion as disclosed after an examination by doctors, Karius was afforded a chance to resurrect his career on loan at Besiktas.
