For years, all James McAtee has wanted is to prove he is good enough to play football at Manchester City.

From joining their academy as an under-11 when his dad whisked him away from United, through to completing Premier League 2 football, earning promotion and then suffering relegation with Sheffield United right up to coming on a Leicester, everything has been geared towards making it at the Etihad. A career in professional football has been the ambition, but life as a City player has been the dream.

Lately though, it has been easier for McAtee to think about finally giving up on it. This season was and is realistically his last chance to make it, and he chose to forgo more minutes elsewhere at a high level to try and convince Pep Guardiola he could shine in his team but it had been a losing battle.

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The re-signing of Ilkay Gundogan didn't help, and the fact that McAtee is essentially fighting with three of the best players in the world in Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva for his best place in the team hasn't either. Still, for all the praise Guardiola has given him he has spoken louder by giving him so few minutes during the worst run of form the team has endured in years.

City's coach put him in the same bracket as a string of 'unbelievable' players that have come through at the club - who have all been sold or left. Guardiola was right to point out after Villa that Morgan Rogers left because he was up against world-class players in their prime and the same is true for most of the others in that list, yet McAtee can't have looked at what has gone on this season and thought the competition was anywhere near as fierce.

That is why Guardiola has talked of being 'unfair' on McAtee, of trusting in his senior players even when the only thing the senior players have had going for them is their past. However, just as the 22-year-old was ready to consider his options with the January window about to open and no movement on a place in the first team or a new deal with just 18 months left on his, then came Leicester.

Within 10 minutes of being introduced at the King Power, the away end were chanting McAtee's name after his role in the second goal that killed the game and brought City just their second win in 14 games. His teammates pushed him towards the raucous supporters to take his rightful acclaim, Guardiola gave him a giant hug, and just when he was starting to think he was out McAtee was pulled back in by the intoxicating spell of starring for your boyhood club.

It all makes the situation more messy. Rather than a clean break - even if City have insisted they would not entertain losing anyone in January, they also abide by their principle of letting players leave if the right offer comes in - McAtee has now been thrust back into Guardiola's plans. The youngster has shown he can do what more senior teammates have not been capable of doing, and as Guardiola reflects on everything in the team's struggles there is now a genuine and new option to help guide them back out of the darkness.

McAtee was always likely to start against Salford in the FA Cup, but now why shouldn't he feature in some part at home to West Ham before that? And if he continues to impress, why can he not feature after that away at Brentford or Ipswich or even PSG? Nobody can afford to get ahead of themselves, but one cameo has changed what the next month and beyond could look like.

Everything and everyone in the situation is all a bit more blurred after Leicester, but McAtee's dream is closer to reality than it was and that is the most important thing.