Amid pressure to bring youngsters through, there

AS a host of City’s youngsters try to catch Pep Guardiola’s eye this summer in the United States, another important training camp will be getting underway in Croatia.

It has certainly been a busy time for the academy since opening the £200m training complex at the end of 2014. Patrick Vieira left his post as EDS manager to join New York City a year later, head of academy coaching Rodolfo Borrell moved up to join the first team coaching staff on Guardiola’s arrival, and academy director, Mark Allen, moved to Rangers last summer.

Amid the regular pressure to bring youngsters through, there has almost been a carousel of ideas rushing around – but that may be about to change. After a year of effectively combining two jobs, academy director, Jason Wilcox, now has Simon Davies as his head of coaching.

And after openly advertising the EDS coaching role that Davies vacated to step up, at the end of a long interviewing process, Paul Harsley has been picked as the man to take charge of City’s second team – and will take a young group to Croatia this week as he gets to grips with the job.

The 40-year-old enjoyed a long career with various clubs in the lower leagues including Scunthorpe, Macclesfield and Port Vale after coming through the youth system at Grimsby, but his mind had already turned to coaching long before he hung up his boots.

“I started coaching at 27, 28, and then when I’d finished playing I decided that was the route I wanted to go down,” he told M.E.N Sport.