Departing Man City captain Fernandinho says academy strength guarantees future | OneFootball

Departing Manchester City captain Fernandinho says the club's future is guaranteed thanks to their academy.

Fernandinho has noticed, in his nine years at the club, how the feed from academy to first team has become more productive.

He said: “Those young players have been really privileged to have a chance to live with the first team, to train and then to play. They can learn a lot of things on a daily basis and this is going to be an opportunity for them to learn for the future.

“For sure, they understand the City way to play really well. In two or three years from now, when they get a bit older, they will be flying for sure. I have no doubts about that.

“The work that has been done here in the academy is fantastic. Everyone here should be really proud because they are doing a good job. I am really looking forward to seeing those players in a City shirt in the future.

“One thing, now you can see more players come from the academy to join the first team more regularly. Some of them have the opportunity to train with us and spend most of their time with us. This is important.

“The connection we have between the academy and the first team, exchanging information to see how the players are developing, is so important. In terms of results, you can see that all of the youth teams are doing really well in their competitions. This is really important.

“From 2013 to now, I have seen a lot of change in that sense. Definitely in the next ten years you are going to see a lot more changes for the better."