Manchester City and Celtic are both tracking highly-rated Swansea City defender Joe Rodon.
Pep Guardiola arrived in English football last summer purporting to turn Manchester City’s raft of academy starlets into the new Pedro or Sergio Busquetts. After all, City are hardly short of young talent, reaching the FA Youth Cup final for three years in a row, albeit losing each time to Chelsea.
However, the Guardiola that laid the foundations for arguably the greatest team in the modern era by making La Masia graduates the forefront of Barcelona’s success has rather changed tack since moving to the Etihad Stadium last summer.
So far, Guardiola has not given a single academy graduate their Premier League debut while, in conjunction, buying 18 new players at a cost higher than his combined transfer outlay across four seasons at Barcelona.
Therefore, young Swansea City defender Joe Rodon should think long and hard when City come calling. According to The Sun, the 19-year-old centre-half has piqued City’s interest following a series of fine performances as captain of Swansea’s Under-23 team.
A classy talent who is tipped to make the breakthrough for The Swans and Wales sooner rather than later, Rodon has even been compared to City centre-back John Stones – who he could learn a lot from if he does indeed swap Wales for Manchester.
Think of the future
However, the report adds that Brendan Rodgers has also made visits to his former club to check on Rodon’s progress. And you wonder whether Celtic would be a better move for a teenage defender who appears ready to step into senior football.
For one, Celtic are suffering from a lack of depth at centre-half and Rodon would surely find game time easier to come by in Scotland.
And the former Chelsea youth coach Rodgers has an excellent track record when it comes to bringing through young players; a reputation he has built upon at Celtic with City loanee Patrick Roberts an ironic beneficiary of Rodgers’ ability to help promising stars realise their potential.
It’s not often a player would be advised to turn down Guardiola but, on this occasion, it may be the best option.
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