How Man City's remarkable academy keeps producing talent

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Before the Abu Dhabi takeover in 2008 transformed Manchester City into a European superpower, things were very different for the youngsters growing up with dreams of playing for the first team.

Thomas Krucken is City's youth academy director, but for a year in the early 2000s he was a foundation phase coach -- the term used for those who oversee ages 5-11 -- working with young players including Shaun Wright-Phillips, Kasper Schmeichel and Kieran Trippier. The 47-year-old has one particular memory of how life used to be.

"Jim Cassell [City's former academy director] asked me to do a training session and I wanted to do something special," Krucken tells…