Not sure why City fans seem to be disregarding this as no issue of importance when it couldn't be more so. From what I have been told you can have 17 foreigners who aren't homegrown in a squad regardless of whether or not you decide to fill the 25 man squad but how on Earth can any fan argue that that is enough? What is the plan for the CL next year then? a 19 man squad with 6 amateurs added to fill up the rest of the slots who have no PL or CL experience whatsoever? One of the homegrown spots is the goalkeeper, and the other the left back so somewhere City could ONLY have 8 backup players to cover every position in the team at best assuming nobody was injured AND assuming that these players have the quality to come in and fill the position adequately.

This is a terrible position to be in as without any GOOD English/homegrown talent City are literally crippling themselves into trying to find 17 foreign superstars who are happy enough not to all be playing at once, and somehow magically have to keep match fit incase anyone drops out of form or gets injured to play in a competition they are desperate to do better in. Did Lampard improve the squad massively? Not at all but he is a reliable option that they no longer have who will now be replaced by some youth player nobody outside of City has ever heard of and the same with Milner. My guess is that City will now be desperate to try and sign Sterling as someone who is at least competent and classes as homegrown, and I'm slightly suprised they aren't looking at someone like Cleverly (though maybe as he is from United) as at least you can depend on him not to be terrible most of the time.

TLDR: huge issue being written off as nothing