Darko Gyabi

[Cjay]

Normally fill these threads with information but its really hard to find much on this kid.

Doesn't really have a YouTube video.

Doesn't have a wiki page

Barely a mention of him on the Man City forum.

The genuine reaction from there fans has been "whose that".

The whole deal stinks really.

He signed for then from Millwall in 2018 for £300k when he was apparently thought of as a real prospect.

And now he is worth £5mil some how.

Victor Orta has apparently tried to sign him before.

For a kid who is practically a ghost us paying £5mil (remember according to Phil Hay we only offered £3mil for Lewis O'brien) is extremely odd and seems more like us doing City a favour tbh, cook the books a bit.

So erm.

He is a tall cm apparently, 6ft5. Good on the ball with an eye for a goal.

More of a Klich position player than a KP.

I found this

http://www.secretscout.co.uk/darko-gyab ... anchester/

What made me laugh more than it should though was that on twitter someone mentioned Gyabi and another player and how they had developed and this Man City academy watch page said that "Gyabi has suffered with injuries a lot" . Lad will fit right in.

Oh apparently we are going to bend over for City again and let them insert all manner of clauses.

[Scoobychief]

yeah i put up yesterday sky sports had said that we had signed him for 5m as part of the deal with phillips to city, he's just going straight in the under 23 this guy.

[pjm2019]

it is not only city doing a great deal selling a unknown untested youngest for £5M

What is Victor Orta up to

[The Subhuman]

it is not only city doing a great deal selling a unknown untested youngest for £5M

What is Victor Orta up to

This could easily be be Marsch, really hopes he put those condemning a player without seeing him in their place though... I've no idea if he's worth 5M, neither do you.

[weasel]

Ronaldo Vieira had trials at Man City when he was around the same age as Gyabi was when City signed him from Millwall for £300k (quite a hefty fee for a 14 year old). Vieira was rejected by City which highlights how much better the quality of their youth set-up is.

Shortly before his 18th birthday Vieira made his debut for us but we were a championship side with a fairly sh*te midfield. An 18 year old Vieira wouldn't have been breaking into our premier league side so how good would an 18 year old need to be to break into City's first team? As such it is no slight on him that he isn't breaking into their first team.

Chelsea had the likes of DeBruyne and Salah on their books and they couldn't break into the first team. Salah was 24 when Chelsea sold him as he couldn't break into their first team, DeBruyne was 23 when similarly they sold him as he couldn't break into their first team. I am using these 2 world class superstars as an example to show how hard it can be to break into a big team so really it is no slight at all that an 18 year old kid can't break into City's first team.

So maybe let's not write him off just yet....

[pjm2019]

This could easily be be Marsch, really hopes he put those condemning a player without seeing him in their place though... I've no idea if he's worth 5M, neither do you.

Yes BUT £5 million for an u23 player !!!!

[pjm2019]

Ronaldo Vieira had trials at Man City when he was around the same age as Gyabi was when City signed him from Millwall for £300k (quite a hefty fee for a 14 year old). Vieira was rejected by City which highlights how much better the quality of their youth set-up is.

Shortly before his 18th birthday Vieira made his debut for us but we were a championship side with a fairly sh*te midfield. An 18 year old Vieira wouldn't have been breaking into our premier league side so how good would an 18 year old need to be to break into City's first team? As such it is no slight on him that he isn't breaking into their first team.

Chelsea had the likes of DeBruyne and Salah on their books and they couldn't break into the first team. Salah was 24 when Chelsea sold him as he couldn't break into their first team, DeBruyne was 23 when similarly they sold him as he couldn't break into their first team. I am using these 2 world class superstars as an example to show how hard it can be to break into a big team so really it is no slight at all that an 18 year old kid can't break into City's first team.

So maybe let's not write him off just yet....

Maybe BUT £5 Million for a U23 player !!!!

[danhirons]

This could easily be be Marsch, really hopes he put those condemning a player without seeing him in their place though... I've no idea if he's worth 5M, neither do you.

I'd be worried if Marsch was spending so much of his time researching random Man City U23 players...

...this one is definitely Orta as should most/if not all incoming transfers, maybe with some suggestions from Marsch based on his past experiences

"Gyabi has long been of interest to Victor Orta with multiple previous enquiries about his availability knocked back."

[The Subhuman]

I'm ok with the 5 if he's half as good as his reviews

Gyabi fits this bill. A defensive midfielder that oozes class on the ball while also having impressive physicality for his age and a superb engine to support attack as well as defence is one of the many gems that have been developed in the academy, and the 18-year-old has already shown many of the qualities needed to make for a very good career in the game.

With City signing a £45m player in his position to add to Rodri who is already there, it makes sense for Gyabi to consider his options but it is testament to his skill and to the polishing of his game that he can head straight to a Premier League club. There is still development needed, yet he has already earned a terrific move for his age.

I absolutely think youth is our best way forward, no doubt in my mind as we enter an era of NFL players getting younger coming through as top class sportsmen younger and younger, the England cricket team getting younger by every passing year, investing in youth long term, the England football teams of the past two international trophies is chocked full of talent once deemed too young.

[The Subhuman]

I'd be worried if Marsch was spending so much of his time researching random Man City U23 players...

...this one is definitely Orta as should most/if not all incoming transfers, maybe with some suggestions from Marsch based on his past experiences

"Gyabi has long been of interest to Victor Orta with multiple previous enquiries about his availability knocked back."

Orta has done a magnificent job researching youth so I trust his instincts.

[danhirons]

Orta has done a magnificent job researching youth so I trust his instincts.

I'm not for or against the Gyabi signing btw - don't know enough about him (don't know anything about him!)! Just saying this will be on Orta rather than Marsch.

I don't think we will properly be able to judge Orta on his youth research until a few years from now - Gelhardt, Greenwood, Meslier, was Struijk one of his?!, summerville too? - all seem good buys, I'm sure there have been some stinkers noone has heard about - but I like the youth approach as long as it's not too much at the expense of funding the senior team which is desperately needed atm

[Cjay]

Welcome Darko

[The Subhuman]

Welcome, looking forward to see you play.

[Broad Ford]

A strong presence in midfield, someone not easily shaken off the ball, composed and willing to run forward as well as help out at the back sounds like he is a team player with individual skills to further develop.

On paper he looks like a signing ready to step up to the first team after impressing with the U23's. Welcome and good luck.

[1964white]

Welcome to Leeds, Darko.

I wish the young lad every success.

[Cjay]

At Athelney Primary School in south-east London, an England youth shirt belonging to Darko Gyabi is framed and hung on a wall. There is a photo of him by reception too, playing for Manchester City’s academy.

Athelney is where it began for Gyabi in England, the school he joined after arriving from Ghana with his mother and elder brother, and he stuck his head around the door on Tuesday to catch up with a few of his old teachers. A £5 million transfer from City to Leeds United, a deal completed on Thursday and waiting to be announced, was pending and he wanted to say hello before returning north for his medical.

Steve Owen, a sports coach and football scout who has worked with Athelney for 20 years, was there to meet him. The pair have known each other since Gyabi appeared at Athelney as a seven-year-old and began demonstrating his talent in the playground. “Within two weeks, I could tell,” Owen says. “He had that something about him, natural ability and so much enthusiasm for the game, out there every break time as soon as the bell rang. The scout in me saw it right away.”

It is one of the things everyone says about Gyabi: that he was incredibly difficult to drag off the grass, the concrete or the AstroTurf, wherever he happened to be playing. He had a stint with Cray Wanderers, a local side that Owen managed, and would carry on training as the coaches were packing up. That Gyabi became a professional footballer was no surprise. It was hard for those around him to think of anything else he would want to do.

“Those days at Cray Wanderers, you’d be basically turning the lights off and he’d be saying: ‘Five more shots, five more shots,'” Owen says. “Eventually you’d say, ‘Darko, we all need to go home. We’ve got places to be!'”

Harry Watling, who coached Gyabi in Millwall’s academy, remembers him climbing over the fence at their training ground to do extra bits of practice, sneaking in after sessions were finished. “The caretaker would come out and shout, ‘What are you doing?'” Watling says. “Then he’d see it was Darko and leave him to it. He was, and is, laser-focused.”

Leeds regularly keep an eye on players in City’s academy because, quite simply, the talent in City’s academy is so good. Recently they have paid attention to Romeo Lavia — now headed for Southampton — and James McAtee but when City began mobilising to take Kalvin Phillips from Elland Road last month, it was Gyabi who Leeds asked to move in the opposite direction at the same time.

They had been analysing him for 18 months, quietly taken with his strong physique, his technique with both feet and his versatility in playing as a lone defensive midfielder, in a two or as a more attacking presence. Gyabi had presence at 6ft 2in and he could graft, good at pressing and tracking back. His comfort on the ball was obvious and Leeds were ready to pay for it. Even for a club that invest heavily in their development squad, £5m represents a substantial fee for an 18-year-old with no first-team background.

Watling, a youth coach and mentor, first met Gyabi when he was nine and still puts personal sessions on for him when Gyabi is back in London. Watling was involved with Chelsea’s under-nines when Owen, part of Chelsea’s junior recruitment team, brought Gyabi to the club’s attention and got him in on trial. “It wasn’t easy for him,” Owen says. “His mum wasn’t driving so they had to take two trains to get from his home to Cobham (Chelsea’s training ground). He’d be getting home around midnight. Millwall was much closer for him. It was a really good move for him.”

Watling had played and coached at Cray Wanderers so knew about Gyabi and his potential. When an academy job came up at Millwall, with a scouting brief attached to it, Watling got it and Gyabi was the first player he went after, the first name on his list.

“I got Darko straight away,” Watling says. “I went down to Cray Wanderers and spoke to his coach. I said, ‘I really like him and we’d love to get him in but I don’t want to upset you or upset what’s going on. What can I do for you?’ I offered to come and do some sessions and I ended up sorting them out with some equipment. Darko came into Millwall and on the second session, he got signed.”

Gyabi and his brother Junior — studying at university in Northampton — were grounded boys who did well at school. Gyabi did A-levels in Spanish and English literature and was able to speak Spanish during his negotiations with Leeds’ director of football, Victor Orta. “I actually had the two of them coaching a little bit when they were at Cray,” Owen says. “I’d pay them £10 each to help with the younger groups, a bit of pocket money for refereeing games and things like that. The first time they got paid, I said to them ‘go buy your mum some flowers’. I was only joking but they did. I liked that.”

At Millwall, everything happened quickly. A good performance in a youth game against Peterborough United earned Gyabi an international call-up. One of England’s youth coaches, Justin Cochrane, was watching in the crowd. A week later, he scored twice against Colchester United in an evening cup game. “After that it snowballed,” Watling says. Joe Shields, City’s head of academy, came in with a bid for him. Millwall received £300,000 in compensation payments for a player who was only 14. Wolves made a big play for him, too, and Chelsea thought about submitting an offer of their own having let him slip through the net.

Gyabi left for Manchester without his family. His mother considered going with him but decided to remain in London and Gyabi moved in with a host family, later switching to accommodation at City’s training ground. Watling told his mum, Agnes, that Gyabi was “the type of kid who will swim (at City). He won’t sink there.” Gyabi was playful and vibrant, in Watling’s words, and rapidly learning the fundamentals of the game. At City, he was quickly expected to adapt to a collective style of play, less off-the-cuff than he had been at Millwall.

“I spoke to him after he’d been up in Manchester for a little while and he told me he was sleeping all the time,” Owen says. “It was hard, but in a way that he liked. For two months, I don’t think he went out at all. He got his head down and put everything into his football to make sure he settled in. I knew he’d be fine there. He’s level-headed, he’s got all the talent. He was a little star from the start.”

Gyabi coped well with the transition to City. Two years ago he was a leading player in the Under-18 side who won their league title. Last season he helped City’s Under-23s do the same, appearing as a substitute as the club sealed the championship with a 2-1 win over Leeds at Elland Road.

Jesse Marsch, Leeds’ head coach, was in the crowd that night and sources close to Gyabi say that outing cemented the move. Provided the paperwork is processed in time, he will be on the plane when Leeds’ senior squad fly to Australia for a pre-season tour in a week, in the mix from the outset.

He dropped into school on Tuesday to say ‘hi’ to some of us and he couldn’t have been happier,” Owen says. “He was showing me videos of him at Man City and he was talking about a couple of goals he scored in a game against Leeds. He said to me, ‘maybe that’s why they wanted me’. I said, ‘Darko, a club like that doesn’t sign you because of a couple of goals. They’ll have been watching you for ages.’ But I think when you do see him, you like him straight away.

“He was getting ready to go up for his medical and he wasn’t getting ahead of himself. He wasn’t going on about the first team — more the under-23s and how good it would be to play for them. And he never mentioned money to me once. It wasn’t in his head. Those days when I gave him and his brother a tenner, they were happy with that.”

[Carrick Dave]

At Athelney Primary School in south-east London...

Excellent, informative and very encouraging read Cjay, thanks.

[andrewjohnsmith]

I don't think we will properly be able to judge Orta on his youth research until a few years from now - Gelhardt, Greenwood, Meslier, was Struijk one of his?!, summerville too? - all seem good buys, I'm sure there have been some stinkers noone has heard about - but I like the youth approach as long as it's not too much at the expense of funding the senior team which is desperately needed atm

Agree with this. If you total up the net worth of those players now, it shows that we make a good profit by investing in under 23's. Meslier was a similar fee (although he'd played quite a bit of first team football) and we could get 5 to 10 times what we paid for him. Similar story with Gelhardt and Strujik.

Youth is the way forward for us. We can't compete with the big clubs. Signing older players is a waste of money. So keep signing these kind of youngsters and it will put us in a strong financial position. Phillips has earned us three signings (for free). The profit of Raphinha will earn us 2 or 3 more signings.

So, yes, I'm in favor of this Gyabi signing. I expect us to continue his development and that we'll make a nice profit on him in future years

[BlackHillsPaul]

I appreciate it when clubs try to develop young talented players. I still believe it's the lifeblood of sane, sensible, sustainable football. And this lad seems to meet the criteria. Purchased by a big club. England youth international. But I don't like the fee. There were other options available in smaller leagues that can be had for €5 million. And they already have top flight experience.

This feels like a purchase made with the "English Player" surcharge. Having said that welcome aboard Darko. I look forward to seeing what you've got...

[Victor_Notts-17]

At Athelney Primary School in south-east London, an England youth shirt belonging to Darko Gyabi is framed and hung on a wall. There is a photo of him by reception too, playing for Manchester City’s academy.

Athelney is where it began for Gyabi in England, the school he joined after arriving from Ghana with his mother and elder brother, and he stuck his head around the door on Tuesday to catch up with a few of his old teachers. A £5 million transfer from City to Leeds United, a deal completed on Thursday and waiting to be announced, was pending and he wanted to say hello before returning north for his medical.

Steve Owen, a sports coach and football scout who has worked with Athelney for 20 years, was there to meet him. The pair have known each other since Gyabi appeared at Athelney as a seven-year-old and began demonstrating his talent in the playground. “Within two weeks, I could tell,” Owen says. “He had that something about him, natural ability and so much enthusiasm for the game, out there every break time as soon as the bell rang. The scout in me saw it right away.”

It is one of the things everyone says about Gyabi: that he was incredibly difficult to drag off the grass, the concrete or the AstroTurf, wherever he happened to be playing. He had a stint with Cray Wanderers, a local side that Owen managed, and would carry on training as the coaches were packing up. That Gyabi became a professional footballer was no surprise. It was hard for those around him to think of anything else he would want to do.

“Those days at Cray Wanderers, you’d be basically turning the lights off and he’d be saying: ‘Five more shots, five more shots,'” Owen says. “Eventually you’d say, ‘Darko, we all need to go home. We’ve got places to be!'”

Harry Watling, who coached Gyabi in Millwall’s academy, remembers him climbing over the fence at their training ground to do extra bits of practice, sneaking in after sessions were finished. “The caretaker would come out and shout, ‘What are you doing?'” Watling says. “Then he’d see it was Darko and leave him to it. He was, and is, laser-focused.”

Leeds regularly keep an eye on players in City’s academy because, quite simply, the talent in City’s academy is so good. Recently they have paid attention to Romeo Lavia — now headed for Southampton — and James McAtee but when City began mobilising to take Kalvin Phillips from Elland Road last month, it was Gyabi who Leeds asked to move in the opposite direction at the same time.

They had been analysing him for 18 months, quietly taken with his strong physique, his technique with both feet and his versatility in playing as a lone defensive midfielder, in a two or as a more attacking presence. Gyabi had presence at 6ft 2in and he could graft, good at pressing and tracking back. His comfort on the ball was obvious and Leeds were ready to pay for it. Even for a club that invest heavily in their development squad, £5m represents a substantial fee for an 18-year-old with no first-team background.

Watling, a youth coach and mentor, first met Gyabi when he was nine and still puts personal sessions on for him when Gyabi is back in London. Watling was involved with Chelsea’s under-nines when Owen, part of Chelsea’s junior recruitment team, brought Gyabi to the club’s attention and got him in on trial. “It wasn’t easy for him,” Owen says. “His mum wasn’t driving so they had to take two trains to get from his home to Cobham (Chelsea’s training ground). He’d be getting home around midnight. Millwall was much closer for him. It was a really good move for him.”

Watling had played and coached at Cray Wanderers so knew about Gyabi and his potential. When an academy job came up at Millwall, with a scouting brief attached to it, Watling got it and Gyabi was the first player he went after, the first name on his list.

“I got Darko straight away,” Watling says. “I went down to Cray Wanderers and spoke to his coach. I said, ‘I really like him and we’d love to get him in but I don’t want to upset you or upset what’s going on. What can I do for you?’ I offered to come and do some sessions and I ended up sorting them out with some equipment. Darko came into Millwall and on the second session, he got signed.”

Gyabi and his brother Junior — studying at university in Northampton — were grounded boys who did well at school. Gyabi did A-levels in Spanish and English literature and was able to speak Spanish during his negotiations with Leeds’ director of football, Victor Orta. “I actually had the two of them coaching a little bit when they were at Cray,” Owen says. “I’d pay them £10 each to help with the younger groups, a bit of pocket money for refereeing games and things like that. The first time they got paid, I said to them ‘go buy your mum some flowers’. I was only joking but they did. I liked that.”

At Millwall, everything happened quickly. A good performance in a youth game against Peterborough United earned Gyabi an international call-up. One of England’s youth coaches, Justin Cochrane, was watching in the crowd. A week later, he scored twice against Colchester United in an evening cup game. “After that it snowballed,” Watling says. Joe Shields, City’s head of academy, came in with a bid for him. Millwall received £300,000 in compensation payments for a player who was only 14. Wolves made a big play for him, too, and Chelsea thought about submitting an offer of their own having let him slip through the net.

Gyabi left for Manchester without his family. His mother considered going with him but decided to remain in London and Gyabi moved in with a host family, later switching to accommodation at City’s training ground. Watling told his mum, Agnes, that Gyabi was “the type of kid who will swim (at City). He won’t sink there.” Gyabi was playful and vibrant, in Watling’s words, and rapidly learning the fundamentals of the game. At City, he was quickly expected to adapt to a collective style of play, less off-the-cuff than he had been at Millwall.

“I spoke to him after he’d been up in Manchester for a little while and he told me he was sleeping all the time,” Owen says. “It was hard, but in a way that he liked. For two months, I don’t think he went out at all. He got his head down and put everything into his football to make sure he settled in. I knew he’d be fine there. He’s level-headed, he’s got all the talent. He was a little star from the start.”

Gyabi coped well with the transition to City. Two years ago he was a leading player in the Under-18 side who won their league title. Last season he helped City’s Under-23s do the same, appearing as a substitute as the club sealed the championship with a 2-1 win over Leeds at Elland Road.

Jesse Marsch, Leeds’ head coach, was in the crowd that night and sources close to Gyabi say that outing cemented the move. Provided the paperwork is processed in time, he will be on the plane when Leeds’ senior squad fly to Australia for a pre-season tour in a week, in the mix from the outset.

He dropped into school on Tuesday to say ‘hi’ to some of us and he couldn’t have been happier,” Owen says. “He was showing me videos of him at Man City and he was talking about a couple of goals he scored in a game against Leeds. He said to me, ‘maybe that’s why they wanted me’. I said, ‘Darko, a club like that doesn’t sign you because of a couple of goals. They’ll have been watching you for ages.’ But I think when you do see him, you like him straight away.

“He was getting ready to go up for his medical and he wasn’t getting ahead of himself. He wasn’t going on about the first team — more the under-23s and how good it would be to play for them. And he never mentioned money to me once. It wasn’t in his head. Those days when I gave him and his brother a tenner, they were happy with that.”

Well there you go! Let's make hm feel at home and for those of you of a certain persuasion (me included), let's pray that he blossoms here and is successful in all that he does! That can only bewnefit us