Manchester City have topped one Premier League table this season – and the shooting star of the club’s EDS (Elite Development Squad) team can save the Blues a fortune in the transfer market this summer.
Divin Mubama, a 20-year-old signed from West Ham for a £1.2million compensation fee last summer, scored City’s third goal in a 4-0 win over Newcastle on Monday night to ensure the Blues finished at the summit of Premier League 2.
City now go into a 16-team play-off to determine the champions. For Mubama, it appears that will be just another stepping stone to the top. The Newham-born striker has scored 10 goals in just nine games for City’s EDS team after injury meant he had to wait until the end of November for his debut. He’s also weighed in with four assists.
Mubama’s form at the turn of the year was so compelling that Pep Guardiola gave him a senior debut in the FA Cup tie with Salford City in January – and was rewarded when kid wearing the No 67 shirt needed just 20 minutes to find the back of the net in the Blues’ 8-0 third-round romp. Eight days later, he played the last 27 minutes of the 6-0 Premier League victory at Ipswich.
While there’s been plenty of talk since Erling Haaland turned his ankle at Bournemouth last month about the need for City to sign another striker, insiders at the Etihad believe Mubama has what it takes to move out of the shadows on a permanent basis.
New City director of football Hugo Viana will have enough problems to solve when he inherits an ageing squad that’s on its last legs – with Kevin De Bruyne already a confirmed departure and questions being asked of Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes and James McAtee.
Mubama has the raw talent to save City a few quid that can be spent elsewhere. He made 18 first-team appearances for West Ham before opting to move to Manchester, scoring in a Europa Conference League tie against AEK Larnaca.
Mubama was a star of the Hammers team that lifted the club’s first FA Youth Cup for 24 years in 2023 with a 5-1 hammering of Arsenal at the Emirates. Both Lewis Myles-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri were in the Gunners line-up that evening.
City’s decision to spend £59million to sign Omar Marmoush from Eintracht Frankfurt in January has reaped dividends, with the Egyptian scoring seven times in his first 14 appearances. But there have still been rumours that they are weighing up whether to trigger the option to bring Liam Delap back from Ipswich.
City included a £30million buy-back clause in the £20million deal that took the 22-year-old to Portman Road last summer. And it’s possible they could even enforce the provision before selling Delap for a big profit to one of the clubs who have been impressed with his 12 goals this season. Manchester United, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Bayern Munich have all been linked to Delap – and City would still get a 20 percent cut of any fee one of them does a deal with Ipswich.
The emergence of Mubama means City might decide they are already covered for next season when it comes to scoring goals.
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