How a chat with Pep defined City kid's career

IT'S an open conversation in the City academy that the end goal is almost impossible.

- JOE BRAY

Considering the amount of youngsters on City's books, the actual number who play for the first team is a fraction.

Luke Bolton is one such academy prospect who got within touching distance of a senior debut - playing for Pep Guardiola's side in friendlies and even getting on the bench in the Carabao Cup. But that elusive appearance never came and Bolton always had a suspicion that it might not.

In fact, he got further than most onlookers might have thought throughout his youth journey at the CFA.

"From a young age I got released and it didn't really hit me that hard," he said in 2020.

"I've always been someone who gets on with it, if they don't want me, they don't want me.

Then I came back from it but even at City, they've always expected me to stumble at the next hurdle.

"A few of the lads when we were 12 got four-year contracts and I think I got a one-year. The next year they reviewed it and said yes, will we give him another. I was always the one they were expecting to not be able to keep up what I was doing and also I've had a lot of hamstring injuries."

Injury was a recurring theme throughout Bolton's City career.