Can you remember where you were when Manchester City sold Morgan Rogers?

The fury that you took to group chats and social media with, the national phone-ins that you rang up and the articles you shared about what a huge mistake Pep Guardiola had made? No, me neither.

The same goes for Romeo Lavia, Liam Delap, and even Cole Palmer in the long list of players that now look ideal to help the Blues get out of their current mess but simply didn't at the time. Rogers bullied City on Saturday but his time at the club didn't work to the extent that while he was at Bournemouth in the Championship he was left out of their squad for the second half of the 2021/22 season and could not sort another loan deal in the January window.

READ MORE: Manchester Airport issues advice for passengers flying with Christmas presents

READ MORE: Man City mood as they left Aston Villa speaks volumes as Grealish jokes and new voice speaks up

If there was any talk of Rogers when he left City, it was that the mistake was in paying what they did for him. That isn't to say that that was right either, but should illustrate that it takes time to be able to judge transfers properly.

Looking for City transfer errors, the bigger problems with Rogers and the rest has been not exercising buyback clauses. These have been specifically put into almost all deals (Palmer being a notable exception) so that if the player explodes into life City can bring them back.

Again, was anybody doing that when Rogers moved to Villa after six months at Middlesbrough? Maybe City's recruitment team should have been given they are paid exceptionally well to be ahead of the markets, but it's not like even at the end of the summer transfer window it was seen as a glaring issue.

Rogers looks an exceptional talent and is in a brilliant place to get even better at Villa, but you don't have to have come through City's academy this season to look good in comparison to the midfield Guardiola has available to him. Whatever the reservations were around City's squad at the beginning of this season, nobody saw the drop-off being so swift and so spectacular.

You can list any number of players City sold on who would improve them right now, but if you had to pick one - given their biggest issue has been injuries to Rodri and the centre-backs - it would probably be Taylor Harwood-Bellis. currently at a Southampton side who have six points after 17 games and have conceded 36 goals. In the wider discussion around City's drain of young talent, Harwood-Bellis hasn't been on the podium of their biggest misses.

There's an argument that City shouldn't sell as much young talent in future windows after this experience. Guardiola has spoken about the need for a bigger squad and the age of the group needs to be brought down anyway.

But just as there is little point in the club looking back on past decisions, Harwood-Bellis and Rogers show that it isn't as simple as just saying they shouldn't have sold the players that they did.