Leicester City have an unique opportunity to become something they never managed to do. In 2021, the club opened its brand new training ground in Seagrave in the latest move by King Power to elevate it to the pinnacle of world football.
The training complex, which if you have visited, is something special. Costing £100million in the north of the county, Leicester has one of the best training facilities in England.
21 playing surfaces – including 14 full-size pitches – a 499-seater floodlit pitch, customised gym and hydrotherapy facilities are all included in the transformational investment made by the club owners. But despite all of this, there is one growing concern.
Prior to the Foxes’ Carabao Cup second round win over Tranmere Rovers, there were frustrations over the lack of opportunities for the exciting prospects in the academy. Steve Cooper, who is renowned for working and developing wonderkids through his time with England, named highly-rated Will Alves and striker Chris Popov on his bench and handed them over 20 minutes.
However, there were fears that there would be no sign of the exciting academy talent and that’s a problem. If you didn’t know, and you would not be blamed as the clubs official social media channels don’t cover like others, City’s Under-21s defeated Liverpool last weekend thanks to goals from Amani Richards.
Right now, there are a number of exciting profiles coming through the ranks. Alves, Sammy Braybrooke and Logan Briggs are all players well-known for their cameo appearances in the first-team. Away from them, the likes of Josh King, Jake Evans, Jayden Joseph and Jeremy Monga are full of potential.
On Tuesday, after Wilfred Ndidi made it 3-0, excitement built around the King Power Stadium and with fans at home when Alves and Popov came on. Despite the encouragement of Alves and the Under-18s stars, there is a feeling that the club are missing a trick with the academy. Clubs around the world are well-respected for their utilisation of youth development.
Benfica have raised over £300milllion through the sales of academy graduates such as Joao Felix, Ruben Dias, Goncalo Ramos, Joao Neves and Ederson. Ajax have made over £210m from Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, Jurrien Timber and Donny van de Beek.
In England, despite their recent criticism, Chelsea have raised £217m from Mason Mount, Ian Maatsen, Conor Gallagher, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Lewis Hall. In years gone by, Leicester have reaped the rewards for their fine tuning in the academy, but that feeling has somewhat dwindled recently.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Harvey Barnes left the club for a combined fee of £68m in the last two summers with Ben Chilwell bringing in £45m in 2020. Hamza Choudhury, Ben Nelson, Luke Thomas and Kasey McAteer are all part of the first-team. It’s easy to imagine the financial situation the club would find themselves in without the handful of successes.
Only recently, Trey Nyoni and Tyrese Noubissie joined Liverpool and Manchester City respectively for small fees. The cases of those two players are ones that could occur more frequently if the idea of using the academy to the clubs advantage isn’t used more often.
More simply has to be done. Among all of the criticism off-the-pitch, the academy at Leicester is a goldmine. Seeing a player progress through the ranks, become a first-team regular and then being sold to inherit millions is a difficult, but simple, method to help balance the books.
When you think of Ajax, Benfica, Chelsea, Southampton and Athletic Bilbao, promoting youth is a key principle in their strategy as a club. Leicester have to consider this and be a key blueprint of the club, while also keeping the priority on getting results at first-team level.
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