What does Savinho's £75m move reveal about Man City's multi-club model?

In January, BBC Sport highlighted how Manchester City, as a separate entity, has turned selling players nurtured in their academy into big business.

Morgan Rogers, Douglas Luiz, Cole Palmer, Liam Delap and Oscar Bobb are among the players developed by City to have been sold on and are now playing, or have played, for rival Premier League sides.

City have recouped more than £250m from selling young players over the past five years alone.

"To find a balance between recruiting players for sporting success and ones that could become more of an asset in the future is difficult," explained Marwood.

"One of the hardest bits about signing young players is that you don't know an awful lot about them but some will come in, adapt, work hard, have ambition and aspiration and go on and have fantastic careers.

"Oleksandr Zinchenko is a prime example. Taty Castellanos is another. So is Jack Harrison."

Invariably, CFG is not always on point with its talent identification of young talent. Some will make it, some will not. That's the nature of the player recruitment beast.

The success of Rogers and Palmer, with Aston Villa and Chelsea, has shown that City have sometimes have sold too soon.

Former Aston Villa forward Rogers was sold by Manchester City to Middlesborough in February 2024 for an initial fee of £8m. Last month Chelsea paid £117m for him.

Palmer - sold by City for £40m in 2023 - would demand a similar fee if he were to leave Stamford Bridge.

But as Savinho takes the next step in his career, City are turning their attentions to the future.

There are high hopes for Ryan McAidoo, an 18-year-old at City who has already made his senior debut for the club.

Japan's Shin Miidera, a 16-year-old attacker playing for partner club Yokohama F. Marinos, is another CFG are monitoring very closely.

Then there is 16-year-old American midfielder Cavan Sullivan, who currently plays for MLS club Philadelphia Union, but will join Manchester City when he turns 18.

Vitor Reiss - who spent last season on loan to Girona from City - is tipped to make the grade.

"In an ideal world you would love for them to stay with you from the beginning right through to the very end - but the reality is it's probably not going to happen," added Marwood.

"The challenge is can we produce the next one? OK- Savinho's gone - but where is the next one? That's the fascination of this business, you have to look three and four years ahead.

"It's important we grow this hub of young talent and hopefully find them pathways and produce a conveyor belt of talent and use our network of clubs to aid there development."

The measure of their success will be judged on the pitch and on the books.