Update: Inside Man City academy – Defender held back by coaches and Youth Cup final confusion News

The latest Manchester City academy notebook as one league has been won, an FA Youth Cup final set up and a big win to move closer to another title.

Manchester City’s unstoppable academy continue to march on, having booked an FA Youth Cup final slot and ‘won’ another league title in the last week.

Ben Wilkinson’s under-21s beat Newcastle to confirm themselves as number one finishers in the Premier League 2 ahead of the play-off rounds to determine the overall winner of the league. And Oliver Reiss’ under-18s have enjoyed a good week with victory at Watford in the Youth Cup semi-final and then a big 4-0 win at Liverpool to move a step closer to their league title.

Meanwhile, City’s on-loan duo Mahamadou Susoho and Jadel Katongo tasted success at Wembley this weekend, helping Peterborough to their EFL Trophy win. In Katongo’s case, it is back-to-back EFL Trophy titles with Posh as Darren Ferguson’s side upset Birmingham.

In the latest academy notebook from the City Football Academy, we look at the mindset in the under-18 squad, the hurdles standing in the way of the Youth Cup final scheduling, and who the Elite Development Squad could face in those PL2 play-offs.

Youth Cup final wait

City booked their place in successive FA Youth Cup finals by beating Watford last week, setting up a final at Aston Villa in the coming weeks. FA rules say the final must be played by Saturday, May 3, at the latest, however City currently have an under-18 Premier League game that afternoon.

That fixture can of course be moved, but more importantly Villa’s first team are at home that day so if Villa and the FA want a showpiece final they may want to extend their own deadline. The midweek slots immediately before and after that weekend have been freed up by Villa’s Champions League exit, but Villa’s under-18s are in action in both weeks.

Last season’s final was pushed back a week from the FA’s original deadline to allow City to host 20,000 fans at the Etihad, and conversations remain ongoing with both clubs to settle on a date with no clear option without an extension or league game moving from its current slot.

Defender Kian Noble told the Manchester Evening News last week that playing away from home in the final will be a different experience to last season – where City took their youth team around the Etihad in the days leading up to the final to prepare them. But having played away in the previous three rounds of the competition, the squad are confident they can make Villa Park their own.

“Look at Liverpool and Man City on Champions League nights, the atmosphere can create a massive part of football,” he said. “Look at City vs Real Madrid two years ago, they just destroyed them because of the atmosphere. It’s a massive part of football, the pitch doesn’t change but the atmosphere does.

“But if we can enhance our atmosphere and put it into the game I think we can come through.”

Winning run ‘means nothing’

Speaking to MEN Sport ahead of the Youth Cup semi-final win over Watford, Noble spoke of the 23-game winning run that the under-18s were trying to extend at Vicarage Road. That run is now a remarkable 25 wins in succession after the young Blues beat Liverpool on Wednesday to move closer to the U18 Premier League North title. They sit five points ahead of Manchester United with three games left having played one more game than their rivals.

That puts City four wins from a league-and-cup double, with the chance to win the U18 Premier League National title against the winners of the Southern league – five clubs still in contention to win that division.

However, the mood in the camp is clear – these incredible winning runs mean nothing if the squad cannot clinch the deal with silverware.

“Why go only one time if you can go two times?” he said of the chance to defend their Youth Cup. “Everyone knows how prestigious the tournament is. To win it a second time would be brilliant. This was our goal for the season along with the league. It’s a challenge, of course it is, but what an achievement it will be.

“[The winning run] is a mental stat but a stat we don’t look at. We know we’re good enough to do it. We don’t want to finish the season having won 24 in a row but not win the league or Youth Cup. It’s got to come with that as well. We’re going well but we need to make sure we win the Youth Cup and Premier League.”

Noble added a fifth at Liverpool in added time on Wednesday to add gloss to the scoreline (and improve the goal difference) and cap off another fine performance.

Held back to go forward

When City beat Liverpool on Wednesday and Reigan Heskey calmly converted his second of a comfortable afternoon from the spot, centre-back Noble jogged over and delivered an on-pitch team talk to his teammates. At 4-0, the message from Noble and then from the coaches on the touchline was simple – keep going.

U18 Head Coach Oliver Reiss told MEN Sport last week of his pride at the youngsters keeping going when games were won to use such games to score more goals and get the most out of each 90 minutes. He could be heard telling his side to continue going forward for the last half-hour despite them leading by some distance.

Noble spoke of the defence’s ‘tunnel vision’ at keeping clean sheets, helped by coach Kolo Toure. He said: “That’s how we play and the appetite to enjoy defending. That comes from Kolo as well, how he was as a player. There’s a lot of clean sheets but there has to be clean sheets and wins.”

Noble is enjoying a fine season having remained at under-18 level rather than moving up to the under-21s where competition is strong at the back and minutes would have been much harder to earn.

“We had an honest chat at the start of the season with the academy management team. I just need to play football all the time,” he revealed. “It puts me in a better position next year to go to the EDS and fight for the EDS, hopefully carry my career in an upward trajectory. It’s been good, I can lend my experience to some players who haven’t played at that level and the Youth Cup as well.”

Play-off path mapped out

City clinched first place in the Premier League 2 this week to bounce back after last season’s 23rd-place finish in the revamped competition. Clubs play 20 opponents once in the 26-team division based on historical finishes and the top 16 then go into a play-off tournament to decide who wins the title.

So while City have returned to the top of the table after last year’s adjustment and injury issues, they must win four more games to be crowned champions. First place has, at least, sealed a last-16 clash against the 16th-placed team which is currently Liverpool – although Nottingham Forest or West Brom could also finish there.

A quarter-final would see City face Arsenal or Newcastle, who cannot move positions in the final handful of fixtures to be played, with a semi-final against one of West Ham, Manchester United, Everton, Sunderland or Liverpool. They wouldn’t face Fulham or Chelsea – who finished second and third – until a potential final. Final pathways will be confirmed on Friday night.