The midfielder was a regular with City's U21s last season and trained with the senior squad. But the former Spurs junior decided to leave City and football after earning a place at Oxford University.
He told the Guardian: “I wasn’t enjoying it. I don’t know what it was, maybe the environment. I’m bored often, as well.
“You’d train, you’d come home and you wouldn’t really do anything.
"If you contrast it to now, I’m struggling to find hours in the day.
“I’m either studying, going out with friends, playing for the university first-team, also my college.
“I always felt understimulated in football. Don’t get me wrong. I still loved it. But I always felt I could be doing more.
“I was wasting hours of the day. I needed something different and Oxford excited me.
“I guess that’s the reason. Injuries were a big factor but that’s the easy answer. I felt I needed something a bit more, mainly intellectually, which sounds quite pretentious.
“Best-case scenario – you’ll play for 10, 15 years and after that, what?
“I thought going to university would provide a platform for me to do something at least for longer than the next 10 to 15 years.
“So, it’s a bit of a long-term thing, as well.”