Manchester City fans have been told the future is bright for some time. Reports from academy matches and the promise that comes with state-of-the-art facilities have left supporters eagerly anticipating their next graduate star.
The City Football Academy (CFA) campus was completed in December 2014. It transformed industrial wasteland and virtually unusable brownfield sites in East Manchester into a modern football facility.
Of course, just over two years on, it would be churlish to expect a raft of youth teams to have made the step up to the first team. However, it's difficult to escape the feeling it's a route that's almost impossible to traverse, despite the club's best efforts.