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City were the last club to win the league by fielding 11 Englishmen – and they aim to be the next as well!

When Greg Dyke delivered his withering verdict on the state of English football last week, there were more than a few accusing looks thrown in the direction of the Etihad Stadium.

Indeed, Sky Sports despatched a camera crew down to the ground to chew over Dyke’s words and to inform – some might say inflame – the debate.

Then Rio Ferdinand waded in, calling it a ‘disgrace’ that there were only three English players out of the 22 starters in the City v Newcastle game on the opening weekend of the season.

Rio neglected to mention that the United team which clinched the title against Aston Villa last season had three Englishmen in it – Phil Jones, Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney – and they were all bought for large fees.

The puddled logic seems to be that it is patriotic to flex your financial muscle and buy other clubs’ English players for large fees. Not quite what Mr Dyke had in mind.

Of course, therein lies the problem with imposing simple quotas on Premier League clubs. The price of the best English players – that small handful good enough to play at the highest level – will rocket, and the richest clubs will cherry-pick them.

The days of smaller clubs proudly proffering their players to turn out for their country have dwindled as it is. Rickie Lambert is one of a dying breed, tucked in to an England side stocked with players from the top four or five clubs.

Singling out City for criticism is unfair, especially when the evidence for the Blues’ real intentions is rising, like a phoenix, from the muck and industrial effluent of the old Clayton Aniline site just across the road from the stadium.

Of course, the splendid new facility will house the Blues’ first team, but it will also be home to every level, from the under-eight tots to Sergio Aguero. And City do not intend the Etihad Campus to be a hothouse for nurturing exotic blooms from all over the world.

They would love nothing more than to replicate the achievements of the great 1968 team which won the league with 11 Englishmen, a feat not repeated since.

The aim of the club, which has intensified since Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain were installed in key executive positions, is the production of young English players and, more specifically, of young Mancunian players.

That philosophy is at the core of Soriano and Begiristain, as it formed the whole foundation of the Barcelona system in which they evolved.

At the Nou Camp, there is an element of Catalan nationalism involved, and City want to similarly tap into Mancunian pride when they set about developing talents.

Some commentators have pointed fingers at Chelsea for failing to develop their own talent since the Roman Abramovich takeover in 2003. The only player in their current Premier League squad who has touched the youth set-up at Stamford Bridge is Ryan Bertrand, and he joined from Gillingham as a 16-year-old.

City have two, Micah Richards and Alex Nimely, but the Blues are just five years into their financial revolution.

Much has been made of the money spent on transfer fees for big-name players, most of them foreign stars. But the fact is the money poured into the academy set-up dwarfs that outlay.

In fact, City have spent more money on youth development than any other club in the world – and the focus of that investment has been English players, largely local boys.

The first shoots of excellence from that seed-sowing are beginning to show – the under-13s and under-14s were national champions last season with sides overwhelmingly made up of local boys.

Last weekend the under-16s won the regional Barclays Premier League tournament, seeing off United, Everton and Blackburn along the way, again with a team of local talents.

And the Blues have seven England internationals from under-17 to under-19, a figure which is expected to rise considerably in the next few years.

City, and every other Premier League club, WANTS to develop young English talent. It makes good economic sense as well as generating the kind of club camaraderie and sense of belonging which aids every football team.

Manuel Pellegrini’s brief when he was appointed City manager in the summer was to oversee the imposition of a blueprint to assist youth development, and ensure that young players feed into the first team. How many Premier League managers have been appointed with that brief?

In the past, the top clubs have been hampered by the FA’s own rules, and have also been restricted by changes in English culture.

Even 25 years ago, our playing fields were full, after school and all weekend, with lads playing football. In these days of the Playstation generation, of a dearth of school football, and of health and safety hysteria, those pitches which have not been flogged off for development are under-used.

Those are the issues which Dyke and his FA commission need to examine, above all else. Not enough kids are playing football, those that do play very little, and most of them are trained poorly and on inadequate facilities.

As a consequence, City and other big clubs have been forced to look overseas to find young talent which has a chance of breaking through, buying in starlets like Denis Suarez, Karim Rekik, Marcos Lopes and Jose Angel Pozo.

They will continue to do that. After all, the men charged with producing players for the first team have their wages paid by, and are answerable to, Manchester City, not the FA.

The elite player performance plan, which will concentrate England’s best young footballers at clubs where they will get the best development, is in its infancy.

But when Dyke’s people get round to looking at the problem carefully, they may find that the clubs and the Premier League are already addressing it, for their own ends rather than to turn out a World Cup-winning England team.

And they will also find that City, rather than being guiltiest of the guilty, are actually at the forefront of driving youth development.