For Manchester City's next generation, Chelsea are the yardstick. For their future, they are the enemies who they don't want to emulate. They are right and wrong role models.
The last time that Brandon Barker, Bersant Celina, Manu Garcia and Kelechi Iheanacho were pitched into an FA Cup tie against the Londoners, it was in the FA Youth Cup. Now it may be in the senior side Sunday.
Chelsea beat City 5-2 on aggregate in last season’s final. They are turning the junior competition into their private fiefdom and have won it four times in the last six seasons. Yet talented teenagers do not graduate to the first team at Stamford Bridge.
City have faced similar questions about what happens to their prospects. They, too, can afford to import expensive talents and have a requirement for short-term success which can get in the way of long-term objectives. They have been accused of erecting a roadblock preventing prospects from graduating to the first 11.
Read more: Richard Jolly on confusion evident in Manchester United minds after the mess against Midtjylland
Also see: Chelsea's Eden Hazard has a chance for redemption against a likely weakened Man City in the FA Cup
Yet City’s journeys have created an opportunity. A route into the team has opened up, not in the way Manuel Pellegrini had hoped and rather quicker than many envisaged. As City begin the first of four games in as many competitions on the road in 10 days, a crowded fixture list and a considerable injury list affords chances. “We have just 13 fit [senior outfield] players,” Pellegrini said. “We must prioritise the other competitions.”
Enter the kids. Barker, Celina, Garcia and his namesake Aleix have never started a first-team game for City. The probability is that will change Sunday for at least some of them. Pellegrini was unhappy at today’s scheduling of this tie and its proximity to Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Dynamo Kiev. He is short of midfielders, with Fabian Delph, Kevin De Bruyne, Samir Nasri and Jesus Navas all sidelined.
Teenagers could be catapulted into the tie of the round. It will rank as no surprise that Iheanacho is. The forward is a comparative veteran of six starts. That his City career already incorporates nine goals is a sign of his promise. The latest, a rasping shot that brought City level against Tottenham last week, can be taken as a sign of an aptitude for the major occasion. Pellegrini has come to appreciate the Nigerian whereas he remains to be convinced by the other newcomers.
“They try to get the trust to the manager,” he said. So far, Barker, Celina and Manu Garcia have all figured as substitutes. The central midfielder Manu Garcia opened his City account in the 5-1 League Cup win over Crystal Palace. The winger Celina provided the assist for Sergio Aguero’s consolation goal against Leicester City. The shortage of natural wide players could also benefit Aleix Garcia, a summer recruit from Villarreal, and Barker, a Mancunian with a crisp shot.
They have defensive contemporaries. Left-back Angelino and right-back Pablo Maffeo and centre-backs Cameron Humphries-Grant and Tosin Adarabioyo could come into contention. “They must take the chance in the correct way to show why they are so near to the first team,” Pellegrini said.
Each is proof that investment has been allied with ambition. The £200 million (Dh1.05 billion) City Football Academy was designed to produce players. City have the facilities but, as the Chelsea counterparts can testify, that does not guarantee a future.
They will not all make it. The truth is that generations like Manchester United’s Class of ’92, where six progressed to become first-team regulars who would make almost 3,500 appearances, are extreme exceptions. If a major club can unearth two genuine first-teamers in the academy, they have done well. In their mid-table days, City drew rather more of their team from their youth system. That process was interrupted when standards were raised.
Now an old aim has been resurrected. This, in the most demanding of environments, is a first real chance to see if City’s kids have the quality and mentality required.
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Heavily-sugared soft drinks slip through the tax net
Some popular drinks with high levels of sugar and caffeine have slipped through the fizz drink tax loophole, as they are not carbonated or classed as an energy drink.
Arizona Iced Tea with lemon is one of those beverages, with one 240 millilitre serving offering up 23 grams of sugar - about six teaspoons.
A 680ml can of Arizona Iced Tea costs just Dh6.
Most sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, five teaspoons of sugar in a 500ml bottle.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
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more from Janine di Giovanni
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