Manchester City have had a reputation for producing top young talents for as long as anyone can remember.
The likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Micah Richards, Nedum Onuoha and Stephen Ireland all enjoyed careers at the top level after graduating from City's youth set-up, while Phil Foden is arguably the best talent to come out of an English academy in the past decade.
Year on year the level of players coming through the CFA moves up a notch or two, a constant improvement that is evidenced by the interest various Premier League and European clubs are showing in taking the youngsters off City's hands - and they are offering good money too.
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Eighteen-year-old Darko Gyabi is yet to make the first senior appearance of his career, but that did not dissuade Leeds from paying City £5m for him.
Two of City's star youth talents have left the club this summer. Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu and midfielder Romeo Lavia have both joined Southampton, in deals believed to be worth £12m and £10.5m respectively.
Twenty-year-old Bazunu has a fair amount of professional experience under his belt, having made ten senior appearances for the Republic of Ireland and spending the last couple of seasons on loan at Rochdale and Portsmouth.
Unlike Bazunu, 18-year-old Lavia has appeared for Pep Guardiola's side, albeit in two cup matches against lower league opposition.
Now the latest reports are that Southampton want to complete a quadruple of City signings by adding highly-rated striker Liam Delap - who scored on his senior City debut back in September 2020 - to their ranks, alongside 21-year-old defender Issa Kabore.
City's current position on Delap is unclear, but the recent arrivals of Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez don't bode well for his chances of first-team minutes this season. Kabore would only likely leave on loan, with City having already rejected a £17m offer from Nottingham Forest.
Southampton's City-themed supermarket sweep is likely explained by the appointment of Joe Shields as Head of Senior Recruitment. Shields left City this summer after spending four years as the club's Head of Academy Recruitment and Talent Management, meaning that he worked closely with plenty of talented youngsters at the CFA.
Swapping the Etihad for St Mary's makes sense for Bazunu and Lavia, and arguably Delap too. The Saints are a club whose identity is built upon youth development, led by a coach who plays attractive football with elements not dissimilar to Guardiola's City.
With a buy-back clause inserted into the Lavia deal, it's certainly not out of the question that Southampton could speed up his development and make him 'City-ready'.
However, there is a slight risk involved in sending so many exciting prospects to Southampton; they could end up at Liverpool.
Over the past decade Southampton have almost become something of a feeder club for City's Premier League rivals. The likes of Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk have all made the move north, while managers Jurgen Klopp and Ralph Hasenhuttl have a good relationship.
Of course, it is not enough of a risk to dissuade City from dealing with Southampton, but should the likes of Lavia and Bazunu develop enough to one day end up at Anfield, it will no-doubt leave a bitter taste in the mouths of those at the CFA and City fans.
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