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We are discussing training on the forum at the moment and there is a chance that a rare concensus may be developing;

The invisible fan says this:

The way players are trained is one of the biggest problems with English football.
Having trained at academy level (briefly) in England, and then spending a summer training in Spain, I was astonished to see the difference.
Over here, players will not make it as a pro unless they can run and run and run and run and run and run and run.
The focus is far too much on the physical side of the game, with little or no training in the technical aspects.
The best thing an english player can have is pace, regardless of their footballing ability (Kelvin Etuhu, Darius Vassell etc).
On the continent, however, players are taught how to play football.
Over here, in a two hour training session, I would have a half an hour match.
The other hour and a half focussed on drills, mostly without a ball.
In Spain, in a two hour training session, I had a 90 minute match, and the training prior to that focussed on ball skills.
It's really time for the english to update their mentality.

Blue Anorak has some interesting thoughts on how City in particular are trained, he has this to say:

I think there's an issue that needs to be aired here. I had a very interesting chat with one of the top coaches in the country last night, as talk got round to City's academy the coach told me that the main reason academy players are overlooked is that our manager probably thinks City's academy concentrates too much on player skills and that we don't concentrate enough on athleticism, power, strength, willpower, mind games and other 'non football-skill' attributes. To be fair the coach stated that this is no different than many other managers in the Premiership where speed and power is prized above skill. Manchester United and Arsenal academies are examples of this method of preparing better players (as more seem to make it at the top level) and is off the opinion that you can't learn football skills after the age of fourteen.

Now, as the academy was built to model the one at Barcelona and they are now clearly the best club team in the world, who is right? Do we really need to update our mentality? Also don't Arsenal and United have the pick of foreign players - a trick we have only just started to pick up on with Vladimir Weiss (Slovakian)

By the way, the coach concerned thinks there is a half way house between the two approaches and Barca's victory last night with a good few Barca accademy players on the pitch is certainly evidence of that.