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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has called up three academy forwards to training in a week where the Blues head to Brighton
Three Manchester City youngsters are training with the first team ahead of their Premier League trip to Brighton. Pep Guardiola asked for Reigan Heskey, Ryan McAidoo and Divine Mukasa as the Blues start preparations for Sunday's game.
It meant that Ben Wilkinson was without the academy trio as the Under-21s headed to Oldham in the EFL Trophy, with the game ending in a 5-1 win. However, it bodes well for the young attackers as they look to put themselves into the first team picture.
Mukasa was the only youngster to be involved with the first team over summer after Guardiola made the decision not to take any academy players to the Club World Cup. With four summer signings through the door and a manager already unhappy at the bloated nature of his squad, the academy players missed out on their traditional chance to make an impact in pre-season.
That is until Mukasa travelled with the squad to Palermo for their only pre-season friendly. Coming on for Erling Haaland in the final half-hour, the 18-year-old playmaker came up with an assist for Tijjani Reijnders in an encouraging performance.
Heskey, a 17-year-old who likes to operate on the left wing, is the second son of former Liverpool and England striker Emile who was in the audience at Boundary Park to see his first son Jaden play for the Under-21s. Reigan scored in a 3-1 win over West Ham on Friday that gave the Under-21s their first league win of the season as they look to defend their crown.
That goal was set up by fellow 17-year-old McAidoo, a right winger who has a goal and two assists from two appearances so far this year. That included an assist against former club Chelsea, who he left last year to join City's academy.
All three youngsters will be looking to make their mark as Guardiola takes a look at different options in the opening weeks of the campaign. It is interesting to see three forwards called up to first team training as doubts continue over the future of Savinho, who posted a picture of a suitcase on social media this weekend amid interest from Tottenham.
City were brought back to earth by Tottenham at the weekend, losing 2-0 at home after starting their Premier League campaign with a 4-0 victory at Wolves. They head to Brighton on Sunday - a fixture they lost last season - as they look to get back to winning ways.
Young defender Jahmai Simpson-Pusey featured in the Brighton defeat last term, before going on to win the Premier League 2 Player of the Season as part of a league-winning team and then earning a loan move to Celtic for this season.
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