James McAtee made his Premier League debut three years ago, a three-minute cameo against Everton. The day ended with Gary Neville labelling him a David Silva clone on commentary.
Someone must have misplaced the code to the laboratory because he’s played three minutes of top-flight football for Manchester City since then.
Two years spent on loan at Sheffield United, in promotion and relegation campaigns, served to accelerate McAtee’s development and the feeling around City in the summer — echoed by Pep Guardiola’s public praise — was that the time had come for the academy’s latest jewel to glisten.
As Nottingham Forest, Lens, Lille and countless others knocked on the door, Guardiola told sporting director Txiki Begiristain that McAtee was not to be loaned or sold, that City required his dexterity in tiny pockets to unlock stubborn defences. The idea had been to slowly introduce him late on in games and let him express himself.
McAtee was up for this. On the first stop of their pre-season tour in North Carolina, he spoke excitedly — or as excitedly as a modest, dry-witted Salfordian can manage — about how this term was not about minutes per se but breaking through. Earning the trust of Guardiola. Making a mark when afforded, knowing patience is required. ‘It’s my dream to play for this club,’ he smiled. ‘I just want to learn from the best. I need to earn games.’
Yet his past two months, almost exclusively watching from the sidelines while City won just once in 13 matches before Sunday’s trip to Leicester City, would test anybody’s perseverance. To watch McAtee, big club coat on, wander around the technical areas at full time of the 1-1 draw with Everton on Boxing Day as others shook hands on the pitch was to view somebody a little bit lost. It was hard not to feel a pang of sympathy.
James McAtee has only played three minutes of Premier League action for Manchester City
After plenty of interest over the summer Pep Guardiola was insistent that McAtee should stay
The academy graduate was likened to club legend David Silva after his three-minute debut
It was also hard not to wonder whether such a naturally gifted talent could have impacted the game. Guardiola talks of McAtee’s ability in the small spaces. Spaces don’t get much smaller than against Everton at home. And at this point of this torturous run, what do City really have to lose if it doesn’t work?
The eight appearances in all competitions currently accrued, spanning 333 minutes, might have been palatable for McAtee in a normal season. Circumstances have altered dramatically though and this has become one of defeats, chronic injury problems and dips in individual form of those severely fatigued.
Understandably, Guardiola leant on the old pros as City lurched from one disappointment to the next. Passing them the responsibility to fix the problems, players who have given him so much in the past and McAtee’s other issue is that central midfield, where he truly flourishes, is an area where Guardiola is always conservative with youth.
There has, however, perhaps been a moment to try something new at a time when City’s recent sales of their youngsters — Cole Palmer, Liam Delap, Romeo Lavia, Morgan Rogers, Taylor Harwood-Bellis — is provoking debate.
There are genuine similarities between Palmer and McAtee, with no obvious reason why the latter couldn’t emulate Chelsea’s talisman given it was he who always shone brightest through the academy system.
Comparisons can be drawn with their international careers. When Palmer struggled for minutes at City, he would go away with England’s Under 21s and more often than not end up as the one who shone. McAtee is going through that now.
He sets the Young Lions’ tempo, scoring crucial goals, and relied upon in a team full of Premier League regulars. That tells you something, just as it did with Palmer.
In the run up to the 2023 Under 21 European Championship success, Palmer’s minutes were so low at club level that he actually didn’t start the tournament. He finished it as England’s beating heart. Class always tells.
The recent sales of a number of City’s high-profile youngsters like Cole Palmer is provoking debate
McAtee came through the academy with the likes of Palmer and current City star Rico Lewis (third left)
The 22-year-old has become a crucial figure in the England U21s despite his waning minutes at club level
England will be desperate that City’s participation in the Club World Cup doesn’t prevent them from picking McAtee for next summer’s tournament because without him, they lose a serious amount of ingenuity. That he’s really stepped up with Noni Madueke and Harvey Elliott elsewhere has been noted by the FA, who view him as someone who can step up to the seniors.
The Euros wouldn’t be an issue were McAtee to force a way out of the Etihad Stadium next month. And he would need to force it, given Guardiola’s recent comments that he doesn’t want the squad becoming even smaller after the window. West Ham have lurked and there is a queue.
They will have seen his half an hour away at Slovan Bratislava in October, smashing home his first goal for the club in a move made in Manchester, engineered by Rico Lewis and Phil Foden, whom McAtee studies in training.
‘I think it’s one of the hardest things to do, to not play and come straight onto a pitch,’ McAtee said afterwards. ‘But I have to keep on doing what I’m doing, keep my head down and keep up with the lads as much as I can.’
Since then, there was an appearance in thrashing Sparta Prague and he performed well in central midfield during the Carabao Cup defeat at Tottenham. A 69th-minute substitute against Feyenoord, McAtee came off worried about the repercussions of his contribution to the cause when City remarkably blew a three-goal lead and was reassured that he had no bearing on the capitulation.
Those around him convinced the youngster of that but it could be trickier for the club to convince such a promising prospect that this should remain his home.
