Manchester City closing in on signing of Sunderland youth prospect

Manchester City are closing in on the signing of Sunderland youth prospect Toby Bell, reports claim.

Sunderland are becoming quite well-known for poaching younger talents from Premier League clubs. Pierre Ekwah, Joseph Anderson, and Dan Ballard are just three of many names to have dropped down from the top flight to join the Black Cats in the past year, but Bell looks like he could be making the opposite move.

An emerging report from the Twitter account 'The Secret Scout' has revealed that the Sunderland U14 goalkeeper is closing in on a move to Premier League champions Manchester City.

Obviously very little is known about Bell given his age, but it would be rather safe to assume that he's a very bright talent given the fact that City are snapping him up at such a young age.

For Sunderland, it'll of course come as a blow to their academy, but at the same time it's a credit to those involved at the club for producing a player worthy of moving to the Premier League champions.

Looking to the future...

The Sunderland youth academy looks set to be a big part of any future success that the club has.

Despite the club's newfound and impressive recruitment strategy, the youth academy still produces some key first-team names like Anthony Patterson and Dan Neil, so it's important that Sunderland don't lose focus on producing players like this.

But as the academy produces better players, the likelihood of teams like Man City poaching their talents before they make a mark on the first-team increases.

It's a rather unavoidable situation for teams in the Football League, but again, it's a credit to how well Sunderland are developing their younger players.

Looking to the future...

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