James McAtee was reportedly close to a move to Ibrox in January but instead he remained at Manchester City and has now featured in the Champions League.
The 19-year old received his debut in Europe’s showpiece tournament last night, with City having the luxury of a 5-0 aggregate advantage going into the second leg of their round of 16 tie last night – McAtee played the full second half, replacing Phil Foden at the break.
On his appearance last night against Sporting, Guardiola remarked:
“Macca is quite calm and a guy who is in a good direction but, yeah he got minutes in the second half and he has played previous games.”
“He knows the rhythm. He has the quality but has to understand the position a bit better.”
Prospect
A big miss for Rangers? Probably not but it is clear that the lad has talent to be on the fringes of Guardiola’s squad. Whilst we missed out on the Salford-born attacking midfielder, we did land Amad Diallo which hasn’t quite worked out so far, in addition to the Aaron Ramsey move.
Instead of a development type loan, Rangers could have done with a quality senior player to contribute here and now but it didn’t happen. We will find out the cost of the January decisions in a few weeks time.
McAtee had offers from a few clubs with Rangers and Gio van Bronckhorst’s City links said to put an Ibrox switch in close contention but a prolonged stay and further learning at the Etihad was the final outcome.