Usually, a goodbye from Manchester City is a goodbye for good. Once you've left, you've left and there has been a whole lot of leaving in recent years.
It's hard to keep track as there as so many but it feels as though there must be approaching a thousand players to have passed through City since the academy underwent a 'holistic' revamp in 2013. The aim was for every player from eight-year-olds onwards to play the same passing style of football to make jumping age groups easier and, ideally, the transition to the senior side as smooth as possible.
A decade later and results of that labour are bearing fruit. Thanks to the success of headliners Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho as well as the legion of former Blues across all four top English divisions and increasingly Europe, being a young player in the City academy is now seen as a guarantee of quality.
If you sign a player from the EDS you know at the very least you are signing a versatile, intelligent and well-raised professional who is excellent in possession and has the potential for greatness. For that pedigree, you pay a premium but there is always the possibility of spinning a massive profit.
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Borussia Dortmund sold Sancho for over 10 times the £8million they spent on a 17-year-old with no first-team experience. Many have scoffed at Southampton for throwing over £40m at City last summer to sign four players but they are set to make all that back and more by selling just one. No wonder they're coming back again, this time for the highly-rated Shea Charles.
City know they are selling players who could one day become world-class and make moves to protect themselves by inserting buy-back clauses, first-refusal options and large sell-on fees into deals. But they rarely seem to utilise those buy-back clauses.
Angelino is the one exception after he was signed back from PSV Eindhoven to provide cover at left back but was jettisoned off to RB Leipzig after only six months. Otherwise, City are yet to return for the many prospects in the game they have sold. Even now when they could do with another midfielder to offset the departure of Ilkay Gundogan, they have not made a move for Romeo Lavia as both Chelsea and Liverpool fight for his signature.
But one man who might just buck the trend one day is James Trafford. The rest of the country has caught up with what those who watch Bolton Wanderers have known for the last 18 months: he is an excellent goalkeeper destined for the top of the game.
The news of the 20-year-old's transfer to Burnley first saw him become known to the wider public, with many scoffing at a potential £19m fee for a player who has spent the last two seasons in League One and has no appearances for City. But his performance at the Under-21s European Championship soon made the price look a bargain.
Trafford didn't concede a single goal in six games on England's march to glory and was the hero of the final against Spain when he saved a 98th-minute penalty and the following rebound. Now everyone knows his name.
Trafford is set to become a starting Premier League goalkeeper this coming season where his quest to be in the senior squad for Euro 2024 will begin. Vincent Kompany has approved of spending so much on him as he is perfect for the progressive football Burnley now plays.
It's obvious Trafford has been raised at City to be a confident goalkeeper who is proactive off his line and comfortable in possession, skills which were then honed with regular senior football by playing that way at Bolton. The Cumbrian's distribution is uncannily similar to Ederson's, especially the way he side-kicks the ball out of his hands and can land it on a player's toe sixty yards away. Crucially, he has the shot-stopping ability and fearlessness to go along with his skills on the ball.
It's almost a shame that Ederson won't be shifting any time soon and City are well-stocked in the goalkeeping department below him as Trafford is looking like he would be the perfect replacement.
He still has a big jump to make. Many players have gone from League One to the Premier League and enjoyed success, it's not a rarity, but the quality of attackers he has to keep at bay will increase and the time he has on the ball will go the other way.
Anyone who has watched Trafford, as will the man himself, will have little doubt he will thrive in the Premier League, even if he is in a newly promoted team that will likely be fighting for its survival. And if he does, though it may be some years down the line, it would be no surprise at all to see Trafford return to City one day and take the No.1 spot he always knew he could get.
