Guardiola meeting his parents and Begiristain mapping out future kept McAtee at Manchester City
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - JANUARY 31: Manchester City's James McAtee signs contract extension at Manchester City Football Academy keeping him at the club until 2026. January 31, 2022 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)
By Sam Lee Feb 4, 2022 21
The offers were still pouring in at the end of last week. One high-profile club had even briefed the media that a loan move was on the cards.
But James McAtee had already made up his mind to stay at Manchester City, and all that needed to be done was find a time to cross the t’s and dot the i’s of a new contract that had been in the works for months.
It could’ve been done any day this week, really, but Pep Guardiola wanted to meet McAtee’s parents, and he made space in his diary on Wednesday afternoon. Guardiola won’t do that for every youngster’s new contract, and it was exactly the kind of thing that had convinced the 19-year-old City was indeed the best place for him.
That had been the message he’d been hearing from those closest to him since last summer, when City’s deal was first put on the table — but when loan and permanent offers started to pile up, too.
McAtee’s intention had always been to play first-team football as soon as possible, and opportunities with the likes of Brighton, Aston Villa, PSV Eindhoven and Club Bruges were so tempting it was not always a given that new City contract would get signed.
But a recent conversation with Txiki Begiristain, the champions’ director of football, all but sealed the deal.
It was a reinforcement of everything McAtee had been hearing from the people nearest to him for months: such was their belief that City was the best place to be, they spelt out exactly how good an opportunity he had right in front of him.
A loan move may have worked out brilliantly, getting him used to first-team football and possibly leading to a regular starting spot elsewhere, but it also might not get the teenager any closer to his ultimate goal.
McAtee impressed in a cameo against Everton (Photo: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
He has said that it is his ambition to play at the very highest level for as long as possible, and by that he means the Champions League. Most loan or even permanent moves, at the age of 19, would have had to work out incredibly well for that to be an option.
Last month, for example, some of the opportunities on the table were Rangers in the Scottish Premiership and Championship quartet Bournemouth, Queens Park Rangers, Nottingham Forest and Swansea City — superb development options but some way off competing at Europe’s top table.
There was a recognition from those around him that he might not have realised, at such a young age and having been part of the City set-up for eight years, just how good a position he was in, so they sat down and evaluated everything, from his suitors’ playing styles to their attendances (such is his desire to play in front of big crowds), compared to the opportunity at the Etihad.
He had been promoted, for example, to Guardiola’s training sessions in the summer and while he was still playing under-23s football, he has got first-team minutes this season and would be the first youngster called upon if there were an injury crisis in the first team. What if he were to go on loan and another player currently behind him in the City pecking order got that call instead?
His playing time was compared to Phil Foden and Cole Palmer, who is the same age as McAtee but a school year older. Foden got far more football at an earlier age, but McAtee is on track to match Palmer’s minutes, and he has made 10 appearances so far this season.
So everything McAtee wants is a realistic aim at the Etihad, and that was what Begirisitain assured him when they sat down in January.
There was also a lot of money on the table, but that was also the case last summer. The difference this time was being told that he is good enough and he will get minutes — the same kind of opportunities that were offered to Foden and Palmer.
Begiristain also made clear exactly how highly Guardiola rates McAtee and how much the City boss believes he can achieve in the game.
On at least one occasion in training this season Begiristain and Guardiola have looked at each other knowingly after seeing the lad wriggle out of a tight spot with some fancy footwork.
But it was also pointed out that McAtee has to do the hard work himself. Train right, play right, eat right and make sacrifices off the pitch. There can be no doubting his determination to succeed. He was gutted with his own performance against Swindon Town in the FA Cup third round last month, feeling he did not give the best account of himself in his haste to impress, having been disappointed not to feature against RB Leipzig in December’s Champions League group finale.
Even doing all the right things might not be enough, which is a fact of life for a young player coming through at City. There will be opportunities for the very best prospects, but the club do not dance around the issue: they want to win every trophy every season, and chances for young players will sometimes slip through the cracks in that pursuit.
City do believe that being around Guardiola and his senior players is often better for such budding talents than going out on loan, but there are other reasons, too. They like the strength in depth on hand in case of a spate of injuries or a COVID-19 outbreak, and they like how quality, motivated youngsters can raise the levels at training, even if only the substitutes are on the grass the day after a game.
Josh Wilson-Esbrand, the promising left-back, also had loan offers in January but was convinced to stick around for the above reasons.
Still, City would have let McAtee go on loan to a club with a suitable playing style had he really insisted on it, given their determination to secure his long-term future.
In the end, he felt he didn’t have to.
by salford city » Thu Feb 03, 2022 5:11 pm 
