‘We make stars for City, not England’

Manchester City’s sporting director Brian Marwood has highlighted the problems of producing top-quality English players by admitting his club “should not be ashamed” to help develop foreign youngsters.

In a week when the FA opened their national football centre at St George’s Park in Staffordshire, Marwood struck a more realistic tone as he discussed the motivation behind City’s £100 million (Dh590 million) Etihad Campus, which will be the most advanced and expensive academy in the Premier League when it opens in 2014.

As a former player who came through the ranks at Hull City to win a league title with Arsenal and play for England, Marwood says he would like to help his national team whenever possible, but he confessed that his main priority is to help City find players, regardless of nationality.

“Our priority is to produce players who will get into City’s first team. From a selfish point of view, that may mean to the detriment of the England team,” said Marwood. “And while it would be great [to help England] because I came through the system and it helped me, we also have to be realistic.

“If we are trying to produce real top quality to play for City, if they happen to come from another country and we’ve developed them, we shouldn’t be ashamed to embrace it.

“We are looking to produce youngsters to play alongside the likes of Yaya Toure and David Silva. That is the benchmark if we want to be a side competing in every cup competition at home and in Europe.

“The harsh reality is we have to produce local boys or bring in players from abroad. You see players for our under-21s who have come from Spain, Norway and France. It is something everyone has to deal with because it is a global game.”

Marwood’s candour highlights the problem for future English teams when the domestic league is dominated by clubs who will shop anywhere for the best talent.

Quotas where clubs have to name eight homegrown players in their squad do not automatically help the England team. Overseas players are categorised as homegrown if they have spent three years at a Premier League academy, as Cesc Fabregas and Gael Clichy did at Arsenal.

City see themselves as market leaders in the new raft of academies with the Etihad Campus. It will have more pitches than the St George’s complex — 15 compared to 12 — and provide on-site accommodation and education.

Around a fifth of players who have taken part in this season’s Under-21 Premier League are not qualified to play for England and City’s Academy already takes in the best young players from around the world. The number of international under-21s who have graduated through their academy include Denis Suarez (Spain), Jeremy Helan (France), Karim Rekik (Holland), Luca Scapuzzi (Italy), John Guidetti (Sweden), Omar Elabdellaoui (Norway), Mohammed Abu (Ghana), Abdul Razak (Ivory Coast), and Abdisalam Ibrahim (Norway).

It represents a change in policy for City’s owners, who need to comply with Uefa financial fair play rules.

City’s facilities are a far cry from Marwood’s days as a youngster, but he insists the current generation will not be spoilt by the club. He said: “You have to teach them the right values and behaviour — that is ultimately the most important thing.”

— Mail On Sunday