While Leicester City’s senior team are struggling for victories, their under-21s can’t stop winning. Two home successes last week means it’s three wins on the spin for the development squad. While that may not sound significant, it’s their longest winning run for two-and-a-half years, since April 2022.
They scored seven goals in the process too, beating Middlesbrough 3-1 and then Stoke 4-0. Against Boro, 17-year-old striker Josh King scored a brace for his first goals for City at under-21 level in just his second start, and interim boss Leon McSweeney is keen to give him more opportunities to impress.
McSweeney told the club: “In front of goal he’s a hotshot and we want to maximise that as much as we can, give him as much exposure to 21s football because he can do that on a regular basis. It’s important to get him minutes, and when he responds like that, it’s only going to get him more time on the pitch.”
In the thrashing of Stoke, in which City were 4-0 up before half-time, hot prospect Jake Evans was at the double for his first Premier League 2 goals, the 16-year-old adding to the winner he scored in the Premier League Cup victory at Hull that kicked off this winning run.
Last week’s two victories mean City are now eighth of 26 in the Premier League 2 standings. They’ll hope to rise even higher this Friday when they head to bottom-of-the-table Blackburn, who have lost all of their fixtures so far.
There were no appearances for another of City’s leading prospects, 2009-born Jeremy Monga, last week though, as he was away representing England Under-16s. He scored one and set up another in a 3-0 win over Ukraine.
Scouts at Porto as department looks to expand
The January transfer window is still a few months away but that does not mean the work stops for the recruitment team and the club’s scouts around the world. On Sunday, it was reported that a City scout was in attendance as Porto beat Arouca 4-0 at Estadio do Dragao.
City signed Abdul Fatawu from Porto’s Primeira Liga rivals Sporting on loan last season and permanently this summer, so perhaps they’re looking for the next under-the-radar star to come out of Portugal. Although, there were plenty of other clubs represented in the stands, with scouts from Manchester United, Tottenham, Newcastle, PSG, Real Betis, Granada, Wolfsburg and Torino present.
Meanwhile, City are looking to expand their scouting department with a new first-team video analyst. The role will be “predominantly focused on video analysis that enables the identification of talent for the senior and development teams, and the ideal candidate will have significant knowledge of international leagues and market intelligence, experience in researching and curating player portfolios, and be comfortable from a technical perspective to edit and present data that will aid decision-making on prospective signings.”
Marcal back at City after injury
With Ben Nelson keeping a clean sheet on his Oxford United debut at the weekend, and with goalkeeper Brad Young making his first appearance for Hartlepool in their 1-0 defeat to Forest Green, the only City loanee who is yet to feature for their new club is Wanya Marcal. But his appearance won’t be coming any time soon.
It’s been reported in the Netherlands, where winger Marcal was on loan with second-tier side De Graafschap, that he had sustained an ankle injury and had returned to City for treatment. No date is currently set for his return to the Dutch outfit.
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