• Premier League

City youngsters will outshine Utd's - De Jong

ESPN staff
October 28, 2011
Manchester City have humbled two Premier League teams in two games © PA Photos
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Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong believes the club's current crop of youngsters are better than anything rivals Manchester United have to offer.

Fresh from seeing the first team eviscerate their cross-town rivals on the way to a 6-1 victory at Old Trafford on Sunday, a smattering of youngsters - including Luca Scapuzzi, Abdul Razak and Denis Suarez - impressed as a completely changed lineup produced a similar 5-2 hammering of Wolves in the Carling Cup.

De Jong believes the club's young players have every chance of going on to become world-class professionals - and prove that wealthy City have not become solely a buying club.

"These are exciting times, not only for the senior players but the ones who have come from the youth and reserve teams," De Jong told The Sun.

"You have to give credit to the young guys who came on the pitch at Wolves. We've got a lot of young talent at the club. It is not only about buying players, it is also about mixing with the youth we saw at Wolves.

"These players can be really good. Obviously if you train amongst such a high level of players every day, you can keep improving and become better and better by the day. They are still young and will progress as long as the gaffer gives them a couple of chances.

"Now it all depends on them. It's all about your own mentality, how far you want to go to reach the next level. You need sometimes a bit of luck with the situation you are in, that's obvious. But it's all about how far they want to push their bodies to the next level and to become senior players."

With the club currently top of the Premier League, into the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup and fighting to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League, De Jong is confident the squad will win a trophy in this campaign - after experiencing the feeling for the first time in the FA Cup last season.

"Winning the FA Cup as a group last year has only made us hungry for more success because the enjoyment we had after is something no one forgets," the midfielder said. "Every player in the squad wants that same feeling again.

"The Carling Cup, with all respect, is the smallest cup out there on the UK basis. But a prize is still a prize."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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