Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the City Is Ours daily digest, your dose of Manchester City news you might have missed.
Ferran Torres joined Barcelona just before Christmas, but a recent revelation suggests the Blues might not have seen the last of him.
City are not expected to offload any players this month, although Southampton are reportedly interested in two of Pep Guardiola's brightest young talents.
Meanwhile, another City youth product is the bookies' favourite to win the PFA Young Player of the Year award for the second year running.
Ferran Torres clause
Following his official unveiling as a Barcelona player this week, Ferran Torres' time at City is firmly consigned to history. Or is it?
According to transfers doyen Fabrizio Romano, City included a 'right of first refusal' clause into the initial £46.7m deal that saw the 21-year-old swap the Etihad Stadium for Camp Nou.
The clause means that City will have the chance to match potential future bids for the Spain attacker.
The news follows reports from Cadena Sur that Barca have offered Torres back to City - like they apparently did during the original negotiations - for the rest of the season, as at present they do not have space on their salary cap to register him to play in La Liga.
Our take: This appears to be a smart move - we wouldn't want Manchester United making an £80m bid for Torres in three years time now, would we?
Jokes aside, we don't imagine City will ever make use of the clause. Had they wanted a firmer option of bringing the player back then they would've have pushed hard to include a buy-back clause.
Southampton keen on future stars
According to Sky Sports, Southampton are eyeing up moves for City duo James McAtee and Liam Delap.
The youngsters, 19 and 18 respectively, are two of the most highly regarded talents to come out of the City Football Academy in recent times and, while they have made one Premier League appearance between them this term, they have both been around Guardiola's squad for some time.
Southampton are reportedly keen as McAtee and Delap fit the club's philosophy of signing young players who can make an immediate impact.
Our take: McAtee has been a regular fixture in matchday squads and still has a contract extension to be sorted. That is the only area of business where City should be focused as far as the fledgling playmaker is concerned.
A number of Championship and Premier League clubs were apparently keen on signing Delap on loan in the summer, but Guardiola decided to keep him around. Given that injuries have disrupted his season, it would be very surprising if he were to leave in January.
Foden favourite for award
He may not have been consistently at his very best so far this season, but Phil Foden has still done enough to be tipped as the favourite to win the PFA Young Player of the Year award.
Bet Victor has made Foden odds-on favourite to scoop the prize for a second consecutive season at 4/5.
Arsenal's Bukayo Saka is second favourite on 3/1, with Chelsea defender Reece James 5/1.
Our take: The fact that Foden has been the best young player in the league this season despite his patchy form speaks volumes of his incredible talent.
Now that he has recovered from injury and will soon return from COVID-19 isolation, we see no reason why the Ballon d'Or nominee will not kick on and get even better as the season progresses.
