Man City make decision on forward who can help Pep Guardiola this year

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Manchester City forward Divine Mukasa went under the radar in Palermo but did something no youngster has managed this summer

Divine Mukasa played the last 30 minutes against Palermo

A strange summer for Manchester City has had a knock-on effect for its young players.

Normally the pre-season tour would be a good chance to give a handful of promising academy players the chance to spend a few weeks in the first team environment and see if they can impress Pep Guardiola in friendlies and in matches. That has been the way for Rico Lewis and Nico O'Reilly to get onto the manager's radar in recent seasons.

City didn't have a pre-season tour though because they were at the Club World Cup, FIFA's revamped money-making tournament where each round had the potential to significantly add to a club's budget. And because the Blues were desperate to put right the wrongs of last season, there were four new faces signed before it to add to the handful of arrivals in January.

With Guardiola not liking a big squad, that meant that no academy players ended up going with the squad to the United States. Instead, they have had a low-key pre-season based in Manchester with a few friendlies.

One player that did get a belated chance in Palermo was Divine Mukasa, the 17-year-old forward who bagged plenty of goals and assists last season in academy teams that challenged on every front. Mukasa was included in the squad for Saturday's friendly and played the last 30 minutes.

Replacing Erling Haaland, it was a decent shift as well that included a handy assist for Tijjani Reijnders that showed the teenager can link up neatly with his more experienced teammates. On a night where City weren't entirely convincing, Mukasa could be happy with his contribution.

That can only help him to try and stay around the first team this season. The majority of his time will be spent playing for Ben Wilkinson's Under-21s, but he should get opportunities to train with the first team and Guardiola likes to includes youngsters in his squads for the League Cup at the very least.

All of the focus on Saturday, as it has been all summer, was understandably on bigger pictures at City with a squad looking for revenge this season and new players trying to settle into the side. However, Mukasa showed that despite the lack of academy presence in the United States there are still players who are able to step up and contribute to the first team.

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