Nolito has said he believes that Manchester City's current crop of youth products have a bright future at the club following their 1-1 Champions League draw with Celtic.
The winger took to the field at the Etihad alongside talented youngsters Tosin Adarabioyo and Pablo Maffeo in the dead rubber encounter with the Hoops, while fellow youth academy stars Angelino and Phil Foden were also named on the bench by manager Pep Guardiola.
Adarabioyo and Maffeo performed admirably throughout the clash, with the latter replaced by Jesus Navas after 62 minutes, and, speaking to the club's website after the game, Nolito stated that the quartet could go on to become integral members of the first-team squad if they carried on improving.
The 30-year-old said: They are moving forward step by step. They are very young players with a bright future in front of them and today the manager gave them another chance.
We tried to make them feel as confident as possible, we try to help them and hopefully they will help us every time they have the chance to play.�
The Spain international has himself had to acclimatise himself with the club, as well as adapt to life in Manchester, after only joining City from Celta Vigo for £15m in the summer, and he revealed that he was finding his time in England highly enjoyable thanks to Guardiola's footballing philosophy.
He continued: I am very happy here. When I arrived to City I knew it would be difficult to play with such good players in the squad but the manager is giving chances to everyone, is rotating the team, and I'm happy.
From a selfish point of view I obviously would like to play every minute, but I think no one can play everything because both the Premier League and the Champions League are very demanding. Rotations are needed and Pep is managing that very well."
Tuesday's draw with Brendan Rodgers' men had little bearing on the outcome of Group B in the Champions League, with Barcelona already seeing off City to finish top of the standings by 15 points to nine.
He's enjoying Pep's rotation policy at #mcfc https://t.co/IfGzQRlppf
However, Nolito added that City were confident about their prospects of progressing as far as possible in the competition, despite admitting that the Premier League was now the priority for the first-team squad ahead of the continental tournament's winter break.
He said: It's the Champions League and, as always, there are plenty of good teams. We'll try to compete whoever we may face. We'll be ready when the moment is there, now we need to focus in the league.�
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