Manchester City still expect it to take as much as three years for their academy to start regularly producing first-team players, senior sources have told ESPN FC.
In the meantime, the club still see graduates as potential trump cards in what is likely to be a shrinking Premier League transfer market over the next few years.
Kelechi Iheanacho is so far the only youngster to really make the breakthrough since a wide-scale restructuring of their academy, leaving the club conscious of developing a reputation for being an elite club who never promote their own players.
The City hierarchy are relaxed about the situation, according to sources, and feel it is unrealistic to expect such a radical overhaul to so quickly produce elite players.
The Manchester club have incorporated many ideas from Barcelona, as well as former Camp Nou officials such as Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano, noting that a group including Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique did not come through until 15 years after Johan Cruyff's restructuring of the Catalans' academy.
As such, the sources say that City feel any players that come in the next three years are a bonus to the team until the changes being put in place start to take effect.
The club's hierarchy also feel that the huge broadcasting deals could actually mean that youth production becomes a key advantage in the Premier League over the next few years. The feeling is that the market will actually shrink and, with more clubs like Everton able to resist mega bids for top players like they did with John Stones, producing quality academy graduates could make for a huge advantage.
Some more Man City youth products could get a chance in the FA Cup away match to Chelsea this Sunday, as the club deal with what they see as a fixture logjam.
Manuel Pellegrini's side will play four games in 11 days, with the match at Stamford Bridge coming just 76 hours before an away trip to Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League.