Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is demanding their academy be uncovering the next Lionel Messi.
The Daily Mail says to many, the fact Jim Cassell and Alex Gibson, who led City to the FA Youth Cup in 2008 and produced a string of first-team players, are no longer involved is baffling.
To Khaldoon and his advisers, however, the academy was inadequate. Producing Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton and Micah Richards is not enough. They want the next Lionel Messi.
Those who have been around English football longer than City's owners may dismiss this as pie in the sky. City, though, view things differently and have a startling single-mindedness.
