Weird thing about that Jesus transfer is this:
Imagine you're Enes Unal, or Iheanacho, never mind Bony. You're playing and scoring regularly for either the first team (Iheanacho) or ripping it up on loan (Unal), then they go and buy another player younger than you, and make him first choice.
You'd surely see that as a hint that you're better off elsewhere, right? AVB, Sherwood and Poch all said they wanted to keep the unproven Kane as a backup, which I think we all went apeshit at, but look how it worked out. They knew their onions.
It's already happening at City, and is something I can see becoming a regular occurance; Tyrese Campbell refused to sign a scholarship with City last summer because he could see City's vulgar agenda to stockpile talent as an obstacle somewhere along the road to him reaching the top. The kid scored stupid amounts of goals in the past few years, and joined Stoke instead, scoring 5 youth cup goals so far.
The coaching and facilities are phenomenal (not to mention the shady educational bribery with a place at the prestigious St Bede'soffered to all academy kids and allegedly their siblings too) so I can see pragmatic parents pushing their kids towards City, but the smart ones could/should look to place them elsewhere at 16, at clubs with a culture and ethos of youth integration.
United will likely lose that appeal under the Mourinho, so the necessary people at Spurs should be looking to entice as much talent from their as possible to supplement the fruits of your own superb academy. Campbell would have been a good signing (despite his dad's Woolwich affiliation) and it's worthy keeping an eye on Jadon Sancho's situation; he's a cockney wonderkid who could be the real deal, but City just chucked about £75m on two teenagers in his position (Sane and Jesus) plus he's in direct competition with Brahim
Diaz, who's agent is Pere Guardiola.....
Regarding Aguero, he's lazy and barely speaks any English despite living here for circa 6 years; that's unacceptable. Beyond goals, he offers very little else; he plays well when the team plays well, but is nowhere near the likes of Suarez and Tevez when it comes to carrying teams to the next level. For the kind of money City would want from a direct rival, Dybala would be a better investment, as i think he's got infinitely more in common with the aforementioned talismen than Kun.
Another issue with Aguero is he, like Fabregas, Rooney, Owen and Torres, has been playing top-level football since his mid-teens; they all began to decline at around 27, the general consensus age of reaching your peak as a footballer. In reality, those players have already had an average entire career's worth of games and physical attrition by that age, not to mention the psychological fatigue that the demands of elite performance inevitably impose on the players. There's no way Levy will pursue such a poor investment.
At the same time, it's important that Pocchettino is backed accordingly this summer; all of the big clubs will indulge their managers heavily, and he's earned it more than any of them. He's relatively putting them all to shame with his achievements, given the demographic and cost (both to attain and sustain) of his squad, but ultimately it's the players those teams have on the bench that will be perpetually decisive in the distribution of silverware.
He's already turned down United, but another season or two falling just short because of lack of depth could tempt him to look elsewhere to find the platform his talent as a coach merits. He deserves an Hazard, a De Bruyne, a Sanchez, a Mkhitaryan, and it's up to Levy to find it for him.
Martial could be a genuine option, because Mourinho's a prick with kids and its petulantly trying to prove a point with him. Patrick Roberts realistically isn't gonna get a look in at City, and as people have pointed out Iheanacho has regressed under Pep. Both could probably force a move, and Pocchettino's meritocracy surely appeals to any young talent.
