Does Bony signing show Manchester City have learned nothing from Sturridge sale?

The striker left the Etihad in 2009 after being stuck behind the likes of Jo, Benjani and Felipe Caicedo, and represents the last jewel to have emerged from the club's academy

By Rich Jolly

In December, Manchester City opened the €275 million City Football Academy. It features 16.5 pitches, 10 of them with undersoil heating, allowing 450 players to train there every week. It includes the biggest artificial indoor pitch in England, a hydro-therapy area with water at six different temperatures and four-star hotel-standard accommodation. They went through 19 design variations after studying 70 training facilities in several continents.

But despite all those numbers, they only had one real aim: to produce world-class players. On Sunday, City encounter the last superstar to come through their ranks. Daniel Sturridge plays for Liverpool now. It is almost six years since his final City game, when he scored in the last minute of a 4-2 win over West Bromwich Albion. He is the one who got away, the sharpshooter who could have been leading their line. Instead of combining profitably with Luis Suarez last season, he could have paired another prolific South American, Sergio Aguero. Sturridge and Sergio, the alternative SAS.

The bare facts are that City have spent around €870 million on transfers since Sheikh Mansour's 2008 takeover. They recouped an initial fee of just €4.8 million, with the price set by a tribunal, when Sturridge signed for Chelsea in 2009. Meanwhile, City have just paid €36 million for Wilfried Bony, a fine footballer with a formidable physique and a terrific scoring record, but arguably still inferior to Sturridge

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