When you’re one of the richest football clubs in the world, buying in the best sporting talent comes easy. However, Manchester City has unveiled ambitious plans to splash its cash in a different way – developing its home-grown talent.

A report in The Times this week on the football club has, for me, laid out just how this kind of investment in nurturing young talent is not only the most financially viable long-term strategy; it’s also one with the most soul. For their deeply loyal, locally-rooted fan base – the prospect of fostering the skills of local lads from the locker room to the stadium is right at the heart of their club values.

According to the report, after two years researching the best sporting facilities across the world, the ‘noisy neighbours’ of Manchester have revealed that they will now be investing in a multi-purpose training ground complex. The club hopes that these training facilities will be the best of their kind anywhere in the world. This will create a steady flow of home grown talent to enhance the club’s future.

Manchester City embarked on a frenzied spending spree for the three years following Sheikh Mansour’s takeover. They bought in big players (from Carlos Tevez to Yaya Toure) to help give them fast-track improvement on the pitch and reduce the time it would otherwise take to start rivalling the biggest clubs on the field.

This, however, could only ever be seen as a short-term measure. As with any business, buying in superstar performers at every turn is simply not a sustainable development strategy in the long run.