Man City shop window day draws scouts, agents and club officials as Enzo Maresca rebuild progresses | OneFootball

Manchester City’s annual shop window session drew scouts, heads of recruitment and agents from Championship and Football League clubs to the City Football Academy on Tuesday, as per a new report.

The event is a well-established fixture in Manchester City’s pre-season calendar, with the club having hosted similar days for a number of years as a structured mechanism for facilitating the outgoing business that any club of City’s size and squad depth must conduct before the season begins in earnest.

This summer’s edition carries particular weight given the scale of the outgoings Enzo Maresca and director of football Hugo Viana are overseeing as part of a comprehensive rebuild at the Etihad Stadium, with the departures of club legends John Stones and Bernardo Silva – whose next club has since been confirmed – and the sale of Nathan Ake to Fenerbahce among the more high-profile exits already confirmed this window.

Players including Divine Mukasa, Jaden Heskey, Reigan Heskey, Max Alleyne, Spike Brits, Charlie Gray and Issa Kabore featured in Tuesday’s session, with Championship sides joined by clubs from across Europe in attendance at the City Football Academy throughout the day.

The question of whether Jack Grealish and Kalvin Phillips – both recently spotted training together as they prepare for talks with Maresca following loan spells at Everton and Sheffield United respectively – might feature in such a session remains live, with the pair’s futures yet to be formally resolved ahead of pre-season.

Report: Clubs describe event as “definitely a worthwhile exercise” as City put on data presentations

According to Shamoon Hafez of BBC Sport, the session featured a short training display put on specifically for the visiting representatives, with scouts, recruitment heads and agents from Championship and Football League clubs given a close-up look at the players Manchester City are making available.

Alongside the training display, a formal presentation was shown to those in attendance featuring data and analytics on each player involved – a structured, professional approach that reflects the seriousness with which City treat the process of placing their fringe and development players at appropriate clubs rather than simply releasing them into an open market.

One senior figure from a Championship club described the event as “definitely a worthwhile exercise,” with Hafez noting that sending representatives to City’s invitation is viewed within the football community as a signal of courtesy – a display of openness to doing business with and a desire to be on good terms with one of the Premier League’s most influential clubs.

The session was described as having featured “a number of good players” that club representatives would be interested in taking on loan, suggesting that the quality of the players on show met or exceeded the expectations of those who made the journey to the City Football Academy for the day.

What does the shop window session tell us about Man City’s summer plans?

The breadth and structure of Tuesday’s event speaks to the scale of the outgoings element of City’s summer business, with Maresca’s stated preference for a larger squad than Guardiola worked with creating an apparent tension with the need to trim and place a significant number of fringe players before the window closes.

The inclusion of European clubs alongside Championship sides in attendance reflects the global reach of Manchester City’s network and the reality that some of the players on show this summer will find their next opportunity abroad rather than in the English Football League – a consideration that Viana’s recruitment team will have factored into the planning behind the event.

Incoming business has already begun in parallel – Jeremy Monga joined from Leicester City for £10 million plus add-ons to strengthen the attacking options, and Galatasaray have been understood to be monitoring the situation of Tijjani Reijnders – suggesting the outgoing picture extends well beyond the players on show at Tuesday’s session.

Whether the shop window event accelerates the loan and permanent business City need to complete before pre-season begins in Asia – where Maresca’s squad faces Inter Milan in Hong Kong before taking on the K-League All-Stars in Seoul – will become clearer in the days ahead, but Tuesday’s session confirmed that the club are approaching this summer’s outgoing business with the same organisation and intent they have brought to their incomings.