Manchester City Player Ryotaro Meshino Moves To Hearts on Loan

One of the interesting things about following Manchester City is how they still manage to make some player signings which sneak in under the radar of the media glare.

During the Summer of 2019, Manchester City were linked with many players. Hardly a day went by without newspapers and websites claiming City were on the verge of signing Isco, Dani Alves, Kylian Mbappe – even Neymar got a mention!

Sometimes it appears that the journalists forget quite how much research and due diligence City do prior to making a signing. In fact you have to go back a number of years before you encounter a player who turned out to be a poor investment.

The recruitment strategy for some time has prioritised youthful players who can be coached to prominence, rather than ready made superstars. This accounts for why our transfer record is relatively low compared to our colleagues.

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A clear part of this recruitment strategy has been to use the City Football Academy and City Football Group to develop young players. So in this regard this is a successful business. We buy cheap young players, develop them and resell them. using any funds generated to offset the investment in the first team.

Even so, it was a surprise when City signed the 21 year old Japanese attacking midfielder Ryotaro Meshino this Summer. It was a surprise because there was no real fanfare at all. No spread of smiling pictures festooned on the website and no biography of the player handed to the media.

Fans became aware of the signing due to the social media statements of the selling club Gamba Osaka and hastily began to look for youtube clips! What we all discovered was that Meshino is a promising young player who has only relatively recently broken through into the Gamba Osaka first team.

Last season he had a big impact in the reserve team and was promoted to the full side. Across all games last season he played 25 times, scored 12 times and had a further 2 assists. He joined Manchester City on 8 August 2019 for a fee in the region of £900,000.

Almost immediately upon joining there was talk he would be loaned out to another club in order to secure a work permit if possible and to harden the player for the rigours of the European game.

Meshino has been in Scotland which appears to be Manchester City’s preferred destination. He would appear to have agreed a 12 month loan deal with Hearts in the Scottish Premier League and it was confirmed today that Hearts have secured a work permit to facilitate the move.

But why of all the clubs is Hearts being considered as a possible destination for Meshino. Well apparently the answer may be to do with the Hearts Assistant Manager,Austin MacPhee, who speaks fluent Japanese!

We wish Meshino all the best for his first season and will keep a close eye on his performances in the season ahead.