Manchester City's Northern Ireland international Shea Charles is giving no thought to transfer rumours linking him with Borussia Dortmund - but does admit he could head out on loan next season.
Charles, 19, is captain of City's under-21 side and is a regular for the youth team this season. He often trains with the first team and has featured on the bench for City on a handful of occasions, but is yet to make his professional club debut. Despite that, he has six senior Northern Ireland caps, including two starts this week against San Marino and Finland.
His status as a full international appears to be attracting some interest, with one report this week suggesting Dortmund were monitoring the teenager.
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However, Charles dismissed any talk of an exit for now, while admitting that he may instead head out on loan next season.
“I don’t really know too much about it myself,” he said. “I’m just trying to focus on City at the moment. That’s who I’m playing for, that’s the main thing at the moment.
“[A loan move is] always a possibility. The City Football Group is very good for players that need first-team football, so yeah, it is a possibility; I’m not sure at the moment.”
Charles is in a relatively-unique position in that he is yet to make a senior club appearance, but is seemingly part of Northern Ireland's plans moving forward. That, he says, is a very useful thing for his development.
He explained: “It’s completely different to what I play. You see players like [Finland striker, Teemu] Pukki, the ball comes in to him and he flicks it on, it’s almost impossible to stop. It’s just little things like that. I have got to try to work on that and stop them.
“They don’t care that I am young. They aren’t going to let me off the hook. They might even see it as a good thing that they might be able to put me off. It’s difficult but I enjoy the challenge of playing against the older guys.”
“I feel like I have settled in quite well. The lads have helped with that. The coaching staff too. It all helps when they can guide you through. It’s been good so far. I am training with the first team at City and the standard is very high. Coming here and playing senior football, it helps me a lot in my development. This is the main thing that is helping me go on to the next stage of my career."
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