Man City have made millions from academy player sales, they're masters of the transfer market

Manchester City have managed to make millions from selling their academy players, proving they are the masters of the transfer market.

Over the last few years, City have been known for spending big on players in order to improve their already world-class squad.

In the past few transfer windows, Jack Grealish was bought for £100 million, Erling Haaland cost a cool £51 million and Ruben Dias was secured for £61 million.

However, despite the big spending, City have also made a huge amount of money from player sales.

According to The Athletic, City have made the third-highest amount from player sales since 2013.

In total, the club have brought in £568 million through sales, including the likes of Ferran Torres, Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko.

However, over the last year, City’s academy sales have been catching the eye of many.

Last summer, the Blues managed to make a profit despite spending money on Haaland, Kalvin Phillips, Manuel Akanji and Sergio Gomez.

City sold the likes of Gavin Bazunu, Sam Edozie, Juan Larios and Romeo Lavia to Southampton for a total of £38 million plus add-ons.

Those sales have been helped by Joe Shields, City’s former head of youth recruitment who moved to Southampton to take care of transfers.

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Apart from the above-mentioned quartet, City also offloaded Darko Gyabi to Leeds for an initial fee of £5 million despite the 19-year-old making zero first-team appearances for the club.

One of the reasons for the high transfer fees is the fact that City’s youth teams are playing some high-quality football.

Their U23 and U18 teams have won their respective leagues for the last three years. Whilst 38 players from City’s youth teams have been called up by England at different age groups.

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To put it plainly, City’s youngsters now have the same reputation as those that came through United’s academy during Sir Alex Ferguson’s tenure.

This summer, England U21 star James Trafford sealed a move from City to newly promoted Burnley in a deal worth £15 million plus add-ons.

Apart from Trafford, the likes of Taylor Harwood Bellis, Tommy Doyle and Callum Doyle could all bring in millions if they are moved on this summer.