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Manchester City youngster Divine Mukasa has spent a lot of time with the first team this season and is expected to feature against Brentford.
As most Manchester City training sessions end, two figures are generally left out on the pitch. One is assistant coach Kolo Toure, and the other is 18-year-old attacker Divine Mukasa. The teenager has been with Pep Guardiola and his senior squad for the majority of this campaign, dipping down to play in academy games to keep his match fitness before usually returning to test himself against the best again.
Despite having slogged it out against stars who are stronger and quicker than he is, Mukasa wants more so his former coach from the Under-18s Toure sets up some extra finishing practice to make sure those shooting boots are as sharp as they need to be. Toure spoke last week about how he tells Erling Haaland what centre-backs will hate playing against, although he also doesn't mind telling the players that he made his debut as a striker.
Mukasa's debut came up front as well, in a League Cup match at Huddersfield this season where he set up Phil Foden for the opening goal and showed many of the qualities that Pep Guardiola wants. He had already been a permanent fixture in first team training by then, and the manager has raved to staff about a youngster who has put himself on the fast-track since moving from West Ham two years ago and instantly making an impression.
"Obviously when people arrive from different clubs at his age there's usually an adaptation period but his has probably been as quick as I've seen," Under-21s coach Ben Wilkinson told the Manchester Evening News. That is some compliment given the players that have arrived at City at that age, and the playmaker has also been given the captaincy when he plays for the Under-19s in the UEFA Youth League.
There, a competition that showcases the best talent in Europe for an age group, Mukasa has looked a cut above everybody else when he has turned it on. With City needing a win against Leverkusen last month to make sure they did not suffer an embarrassing early exit, their skipper bagged a second-half hat-trick to get the job done.
"He's made a real step in the last six months in terms of his maturity and his level. One of the things I challenge him on is being able to make the difference in the top games because he has the talent," said Wilkinson. "With Divine in this case [the captaincy] puts a bit of extra responsibility on him, which I hope tries to get a little more out of him.
"He's been closest to the first team this season and has learnt a lot from that so it's a case of trying to transition those behaviours into our games and being a positive role model for the rest of the group."
If Mukasa is the leading light of one group, he has had to get used to being at the bottom of another. There is undeniably a gap between academy and first team training, with people working at the club to calculate exactly how many seconds faster the latter is.
It is something Mukasa has had to work out himself, and that is helping his physicality as well as his speed of thought. "You barely see them make a wrong decision so to get the better of them you have to be more physical. Bernardo sees the game so well and even though he's not one of the most physical players because he's so quick with his brain it helps him out so much," he told the Manchester Evening News.
"I think you have to have that naturally a little bit and being with them you do get used to it. If you listen enough, you start to see the pictures before you get the ball. Being with them definitely does help. Pep is so big on body position and how you receive the ball in midfield so you're ready to play forward and connect to your teammates. He always goes on about having an open shape when you're receiving so he's really hands on with it."
The first team is a welcoming environment but it is also unrelenting; mistakes are allowed, yet a drop in effort or attitude will usually see youngsters sent back to the academy and not invited back. Mukasa has done enough to keep getting asked back and has a chance of more minutes when City take on Brentford in the Carabao Cup quarter-final as he continues to strive to break into one of the strongest sides in world football.
"The demands in training are so high, you have to be so high, so on it," he said. "You can't ever have an off day or not run so it really helps and makes youth games easier. It's such a top team with some of the best players in the world so it's obviously going to be hard to break through and solidify a spot but I just have to keep working and keep going. It really motivates me."
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