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MATT BARLOW: Man City's stamp of excellence paying off as youth proves to be the most precious commodity in a distorted transfer marketplace

Summer business has been brisk once again in the Manchester City farm shop.

With Carlos Borges to Ajax, Shea Charles to Southampton and James Trafford to Burnley — three talented teenagers sold for fees totalling more than £50million — it has been a feature of the market for the second successive year.

City’s academy graduates command huge fees. Sometimes without kicking a ball at senior level.

Ajax beat West Ham and Eintracht Frankfurt to sign 19-year-old winger Borges for £17m despite the fact he had never appeared in Pep Guardiola’s team, nor out on loan.