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Manchester City take on Arsenal in the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup on Friday night and Harrison Miles could be key.
Pep Guardiola has thanked Watford this week for Max Alleyne's development but he might want to include Southampton as well. It was on the south coast where he spent half of his childhood before Manchester City came to snap him up in 2021 ahead of his first professional contract. Alleyne has progressed at City and at Watford, but his success is also another feather in the cap of the Southampton academy.
The competition to sign the best young British teenagers has gone to a new level since Brexit and City were one of several top clubs in for Alleyne. The same was true two years later when City raided Southampton again to sign England youth midfielder Harrison Miles and the news made more headlines than most first-year scholars get.
As with Alleyne, City believe they have a gem in Miles - a player who is already used to training with Pep Guardiola and knew the Etihad was the right choice for him when he saw how hard even the Under-18s sessions were. Trying to stop Erling Haaland steaming past you is never easy, but City's youngsters at least feel like they are going up to first team sessions prepared for most things.
"It was a big decision but as soon as City come in I thought I had to go and exploit the opportunity. The status of the club - as soon as you hear City you think of all the things they've done in recent times, but then you look back at what I'm going to be going into and think it's a great team aspiring to win everything," he told the Manchester Evening News. "Going in and being around the boys, the culture of the team is definitely what I like and that drew me in. I'd say I've risen to it and taken it so far.
"The competitiveness drew me in. The willingness to want to win everything, and that's not just the games. It's training - all the silly little competitions we make up. Everyone just wants to win. It causes arguments sometimes but that's normal in football. That really pulled me in and made me want to be here.
"Any footballer wants that. You want the training to be harder than the game because then the game almost feels like you've got more time and you know what you're doing. In training it's one or two touches that you can only take or you get tackled and the ball is taken off you. In the games, you find the space and you feel like you've got more time than you actually probably do.
"Obviously the first-team standard is a lot higher because it's Man City but you're almost used to the competitiveness and intensity because we train like that every day anyway. The things that we do as Under-18s is not at the level but you're almost used to the intensity of what the training is going to be like."
Miles has had to get used to a lot since moving up from a market town in Hampshire to join City, even if with his brother now at Chelsea Under-14s there is football in the family. A greater focus on individual learning has helped him to progress, Under-18s boss Oli Reiss has given him regular video feedback on what he wants from his No.6 - Rodri and Nico Gonzalez provide the gold standard in training - while the 17-year-old has also embraced the sports science and nutrition help on offer to help his game.
City also took the decision to keep Miles with the Under-18s for another season this year rather than move up to the Under-21s like many from his age group in an effort to keep him dominating games and playing regularly. It is something that has worked for players including Phil Foden and Nico O'Reilly, although that doesn't mean that frustration can't come out when everyone is hoping to be the next talent spotted.
"I think it was just that I can dominate and establish myself as a good footballer. I feel like I'm pushing on and I do want to get the opportunities playing up, and I have a little bit," said Miles. "You have to take those opportunities, and I've been up training with the first team as well, doing the matchday minus ones with them and even those are opportunities to impress the manager, which I feel like I've taken and given him an impression of what kind of player I am. I'm waiting for the next opportunity and hopefully I can take that one as well.
"I like to do a bit of everything and get into the box and to the edge of the box having shots. I've scored a few recently and I'm trying to carry that on because as a six you don't score many so you have to try to take your chances. I do like the other side of the game as well though - I will run, I will tackle, I will demand things off people, but my main attribute is probably my range of passing. I like to get on the ball and find players in high pockets, over the top and be expressive."
When Miles found teammate Matty Warhurst in the opening minutes of the FA Youth Cup last season to see them take an early lead against Aston Villa, it looked as though a dream debut season would continue. However, Villa came back to win 3-1 and end an unbelievable 27-match winning streak for the Under-18s in all competitions. Even worse, Villa then beat them again in the Under-18 national championship game to leave the young Blues without either of the two trophies they wanted.
It was a harsh lesson for all concerned of what can happen if you don't take your moments in big games. That has continued for Miles and some of his City teammates already this season as they went to Qatar for the Under-17 World Cup but England went out to Austria in the quarter-finals, and picks up again on Friday when they meet Arsenal in the FA Youth Cup in a tantalising tie that sees Miles come up against one of the other clubs that pushed to sign him two years ago.
Reiss will let his side know that they need to win every battle if they want to keep their hopes of winning the cup this year, but it is a lesson they are all aware of anyway in the brutal battle to make their way in the game. In Alleyne and others - Guardiola has given debuts to seven academy players this season - they at least have proof that it can be done as they look to convince the manager that they have what it takes.
"I wasn't expecting my first year here to be that good and have that many opportunities," said Miles. "It was definitely good, it was fun. It was high standards and we wanted to win everything and we felt like we should have won at least one of the finals but sometimes it's just not meant to be.
"This year, especially for the second years and some of the first years that were involved, our aim is to go and get into those finals and give us a chance to win those competitions again. Against Arsenal we can prove that we mean business and show everyone that we want to go on and win this tournament.
"It's the little moments that you probably don't realise, like the second ball you have to get or if you can score the half-chance you're 1-0 up in a game and the momentum changes. It's all the little details that get you to the next level and at this level, and as we get older, those details get smaller and smaller and it's all about trying to improve that little bit to get you to that next level."
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