Man City U21 coach Barry-Murphy understands Guardiola frustration losing so many top kids | OneFootball

Manchester City U21 coach Brian Barry-Murphy can understand manager Pep Guardiola's disappointment losing a raft of their top kids this past summer.

New Southampton trio Romeo Lavia, Gavin Bazunu and Sam Edozie are all players who have featured in the Premier League so far, while a handful of others like Liam Delap and James McAtee have left for the Championship on loan.

Barry-Murphy addressed Guardiola's comments, joking: "I always agree with him!"

He then added: "No, obviously the standard of our first team is so high I think a lot of our lads get so much exposure over there. It's amazing for them, and some of them will do that and we will to progress there.

"And obviously some of them will have other avenues and I think in our environment in the academy, we have to be mindful that the players have different opportunities, and we create the best possible platform to give them the best opportunity wherever they go.

"I think you'll see a balance between certain players staying here in the past and certain players go elsewhere and do very, very well. So we're very proud of the success that Romeo's had and Sam Edozie's start and it kind of gives us a lot of satisfaction within the academy that they can do so well away from the club because we got so many players doing well at our own club. James McAtee and Liam are on loan as well. So they're separate parts of the club but all very much our players."