Roberts sets sights high on return to City
PATRICK Roberts intends to perform the football equivalent of climbing Everest this summer ... by forcing his way into Pep Guardiola’s brilliant City squad.
The 21-year-old Londoner wrapped up his second season on loan at Celtic by watching from the bench as the Hoops claimed victory in the Scottish Cup final to complete a Treble.
With Leicester and West Ham jockeying for position – along with Celtic – to sign him for next season, Roberts has declared he wants to try his luck in the Premier League.
And his first aim is to show Guardiola he can hack it in the rarefied atmosphere of the Blues’ first-team squad.
Roberts will report for training at the City Football Academy on July 9 with the sole intention of impressing a manager under whom he has not played.
His two-and-a-half-year stint at Parkhead has seen him pick up three Scottish Premiership titles, two League Cups and now two Scottish Cups.
But this season has been something of a washout, as a niggling hamstring injury kept him out from November to March, restricting him to just 12 league appearances.
But his ambition is undaunted, as he sketched out what the summer holds for him.
“I have aims in my head that I can climb Mount Everest but I don’t know if I’m going to do it or not,” he said.
“I’ll have dreams and objectives where I want to be, but it’s about me putting it into place.
“Hopefully, my career will pan out the way I want it to, but I just enjoy playing football. Wherever I play I just enjoy it.
“It doesn’t faze me. In the summer I’ll go back and see what happens.”
Roberts signed for City as an 18-year-old three years ago, for an initial £2m – but in a deal which could be worth around £11m if he does make it big with the Blues.
He made two substitute appearances in that first season but was then farmed out to Celtic – and he says the move has helped him to mature.
“I’ve grown up here a lot,” he said. “I came at 18, I’d only played a few games at Fulham then went to Man City and didn’t play there.
“Coming here was my first big opportunity at men’s football. You grow up quite quickly with the physicality of the league and players.” His task at City will not be easy. He gave Guardiola a nudge by scoring against his parent club at the Etihad Stadium in the Champions League last season, after skinning Gael Clichy.
But as a naturally right-sided player, he immediately comes into competition with two huge City successes this season, in Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva.
And with the Blues still interested in Riyad Mahrez, the competition for the front three slots is likely to get even tougher this summer.
He has a chance of going on City’s summer tour of the USA, with most first-teamers set to be absent after being on World Cup duty – if he is not on the plane, it is hard to see any future for him at City.