Manchester City are currently unsure what the future holds for James McAtee, as the summer transfer window sees the question arise whether the player will remain or say goodbye.
Manchester City are caught in a situation which finds them uncertain about James McAtee as an exit looks as a possibility.
But which option would favour the club and player better? Would McAtee's stay be the benefcual move or would a new start away from the Cityzens be a wiser choice for them both?
A few transfer windows ago, Manchester City made the decision to let go of academy talent Cole Palmer on a fee of £40 million, after he had made a couple of appearances for the senior squad.
"My thing was to never leave Manchester City"
"That was not my intention. I wanted to go on loan for a year, come back and be ready for the first team.”
"But they said I couldn't go on loan, either stay or you get sold.”
"So then, Chelsea rang me. I said I wanted to go to Chelsea and I'm really happy to be here.”
"I'm very glad I made the decision to come here."
Now in 2025, Manchester City find themselves in a somewhat similar situation as they did two years ago, with another academy talent attracting interest across Europe and facing uncertainty about their future at the club.
McAtee had two loan spells at Sheffield United, the first one back in 2022/23, and the second one during the 2023/2024 season.
During the 2024/25 season, James made more appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side, even scoring on a number of occasions, most notably a hat-trick in the FA Cup at the Etihad against Salford City, however, he was not able to fully break into the starting 11 and get stable playing time.
Pep Guardiola about McAtee’s game time last season:
“We haven’t seen it last season because I didn’t allow him to play minutes”
“I cannot ask anything from these types of players when they do not play a lot of minutes. Could they do better? No.”
“For the age I would like him to stay.”
“I understand, the players want more minutes I understand that.”
“I would like him to stay, he’s an Academy player, he knows the patterns, he’s a lovely person, a lovely guy.”
With growing interest from clubs such as Eintracht Frankfurt and other Premier League clubs such as Crystal Palace, we will see if James McAtee leaves the club this summer, and if he does, will it be on a permanent move or will it be on yet another loan? Or will McAtee choose to follow the path of fellow academy graduates Phil Foden and Rico Lewis, and stay to fight for his spot in the squad?