A major factor behind Manchester City’s emergence as the outright dominant force of English football over the years are their state-of-the-art facilities.
After all, the Sky Blues invested a whopping £200 million towards the Etihad Campus in 2020 - which is widely classed as the best training facility in the world.
Providing a space for both the women’s and academy teams, while also allowing the men’s team to utilise it as a training facility, it is known to be popular amongst all the players.
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In addition, the City Football Academy (known as the CFA) consists of a staggering 16 indoor and outdoor pitches - which is testament to the attention to detail taken to provide the youngsters associated with the club with the very best resources to develop.
With a College also in place as an educational facility for academy players, it is safe to say that the Premier League champions have ticked every possible box to create a productive environment at all age groups.
After his £42 million signing was recently announced, Kalvin Phillips marvelled during his first glimpse of the CFA.
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“It's a lot different to what I'm used to, to be honest."
"I'm just gobsmacked”, he admitted in the latest episode of Inside City.
Signing for Leeds United at just 14 years-old, the England international is not quite accustomed to the upper echelon of world football just yet.
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With the Whites making a 16-year return to Premier League football as recently as 2020, the club have not had access to the resources of elite clubs such as Manchester City to build such an incredible level of infrastructure.
However, the highly-rated defensive midfielder has stated several factors that make the Sky Blues such a major club are what led him to depart Elland Road this summer.
“Anybody else, I probably wouldn't have gone. The thought of playing for (Manchester) City, the manager, the players they've got”, he recently revealed.
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Entering the prime of his career, it seems as if Kalvin Phillips now wants to test himself at the highest level.
With a previous report claiming that Pep Guardiola told the player that he is certainly not guaranteed minutes in his squad, considering the side’s strength-in-depth, he is set to go toe-to-toe with arguably the best number six in world football in Rodri next term.
As a result, the Elland Road icon will have to get to grips with everything Manchester City from the word, ‘go’.
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That includes getting used to the City Football Academy in all its glory.
Topics: Kalvin Phillips, Manchester City, Premier League, Football, Transfers, Manchester City Transfer News & Rumours