Manchester, December 02: Manchester City’s young defender Nedum Onuoha, one of the few players from his side’s respected youth academy with genuine hopes of breaking through into the expensive first-team ranks, has cautioned his club against overlooking locally developed talent in their breakneck pursuit of Champions League football.
Onuoha made his City debut more than five years ago in a League Cup home tie against Arsenal – visitors to the City of Manchester stadium in the same tournament tonight – and he still finds himself on the margins of the side, after the arrival of Joleon Lescott and Kolo Touré. He insists that local talent offers a dimension that money can’t buy. “With someone who’s local you know you can always see they play with a certain type of passion that other people might not be able to,” Onuoha told The Independent.
“Although every player who wears the shirt gives it his all, it’s a bit different when it’s, say, a Stephen Ireland. He’s been there, seen it all, knows what you need to do to push on.”
–Agencies