The newly-appointed Foxes boss will no doubt be striving to utilize his City contacts to bolster their promotion bid
Leicester City are dawning upon the next chapter in their history following relegation from the Premier League.
A rebuild inevitably awaits, and they have already put the gears in motion on that front by making the left-field appointment of Enzo Maresca, who operated as second-in-command to Pep Guardiola during his time at the Etihad Stadium.
Though now desiring an established managerial role himself, Maresca will now be the man bearing the responsibility of guiding Leicester back to the top-flight at the first time of asking.
That call of duty will not be easy, however, with a thorough renovation of the playing squad needed following eight present departures alongside the seemingly-imminent departures of star forwards James Maddison and Harvey Barnes, both of whom have unsurprisingly earned admirers.
That said, Maresca could make his East Midlands tenure a whole lot easier by leveraging his connections with the treble-winners and swooping for some of their young prospects, akin to what Vincent Kompany did en-route to lifting the Championship title with Burnley last term.
Here are three Man City youngsters who Maresca could bring to the King Power Stadium this summer.
Cole Palmer
Having emerged as one of the finest and most highly-regarded fledgling talents from the club’s academy in recent years, Cole Palmer’s initiation to senior football probably has not gone as planned.
38 appearances for such an all-conquering outfit at the age of 21 does not make for bad reading given the assembly of world-class talent that Guardiola has at his disposal, however, the vast majority of those have been brief cameos from the bench and Palmer has, thus far, failed to match the expectations that have long accompanied his name.
Indeed, he now appears primed for a loan move elsewhere in order to further adapt to the rigors of the senior game according to the Daily Mail, who also state that there is “disappointment” regarding the deceleration of his development.
It seems likely, then, that he will head down to the Championship, with the recent successes of James McAtee and Tommy Doyle at Sheffield United testifying to City just how cohesive a spell in the second-tier can prove to player progression.
And it would be fair to say that few, if any sides at this level, would be better placed to land Palmer’s signature than Leicester.
Not only had Maresca coached Palmer in the senior set-up, but he was also in charge of the club’s EDS (Elite Development Squad) in the 2020/21 campaign, where, under the Italian’s tuition, Palmer enjoyed a breakout season that served to truly propel the exposure of his talents.
After chalking up a highly-impressive return of 13 goals and six assists in just 16 Premier League 2 matches, Palmer subsequently found himself upon the fringes of the first-team, which evidences that Maresca could be capable of getting the England youth International fully firing yet again.
He clearly knows what makes Palmer tick and the most beneficial modus operandi when it comes to optimizing the winger’s undoubted abundance of quality, and you feel that this will be placed under significant consideration when City decide the next, best destination for him.
If that destination does end up encompassing a reunion between the two, then it would be hard to contest that Palmer, at his best, could not really enhance Leicester either.
A tricky, technically-gifted wide-player capable of scoring and creating with ease, fleeting moments in fits and starts for Guardiola’s side have enforced that he can adequately make the step-up from age-group football, and he could help to inject a new lease of free-flowing creativity into their side.
Those qualities will be necessary to incorporate back in with star man and creative kingpin-in chief Maddison set to move on to pastures new, and Palmer represents a simple, sensible yet high-reward option.
Callum Doyle
Fresh off the back of two productive and successful loan spells with Sunderland and Coventry, where he supported two respective promotion pushes, Callum Doyle now faces an uncertain City future- even if he is still only 19.
He has already acclimatized to the senior game by obtaining invaluable experience, making 44 appearances in his debut campaign as the Mackems returned to the Championship before playing 46 times in a season where Coventry so nearly sealed an unlikely promotion, losing out in the play-off final to Luton Town.
Coventry will be trying to shake off that heartbreak, but for Doyle, it has provided an unprecedented learning curve, and being in the thick of two promotion hunting sides makes him a viable option for Leicester given their ambitions will align with just that.
Interestingly, Doyle also aligns with the way that a Guardiola pupil will want to play as he possesses progressive ball-playing skills that could enable Leicester to build from the back, while still beholding the necessary defensive nous to deal with potent Championship attackers.
But it is uncertain what beckons for him next season.
City may well fancy another loan move which will give them the facilitation to observe his development yet again, though we are now beginning to see more and more young players display the nerve to depart the comfortable surroundings of the Premier League’s elite and cut their teeth elsewhere on a permanent basis.
Whether Doyle himself subscribes to this school of thought will only be revealed by time, yet it would be hard to rule anything out at this stage.
He is unlikely to feature in City’s team with regularity anytime soon, which could turn his head and, in turn, present an opening for Leicester to bring him in.
With the combination of his age, abilities and potential, any such move would likely cost a pretty penny, but with the outgoing sales, Leicester could just be able to sanction it.
Carlos Borges
While Borges may not be quite as well-versed or experienced in senior football as the aforementioned duo, his ceiling and scope for potential impact remains equally promising.
Put simply, the 19-year-old has outgrown the youth game, having scored 21 times and laid on a futher 11 assists in just 24 Premier League 2 matches last term, along with contributing to ten goals from six games in the prestigious UEFA Youth League, too.
Although it is Borges’ EFL trophy performances that really show that he can make an instant impact in professional football, and his hattrick in a 3-1 victory away to Derby County’s senior team in October will have not been lost on the head honchos in Manchester.
In fact, Paul Warne even summoned a strong side that evening, calling upon the likes of Haydon Roberts, Eiran Cashin, Craig Forsyth and Jason Knight to attempt to nullify the threat of City’s prodigies.
But they were powerless to prevent Borges at Pride Park, and given the calibre of some of those players, it showed that he would likely direct a significant influence on proceedings in the Championship.
Predominantly a left-winger, Borges is gifted with searing speed, skill, invention and a lethal end product which would help to fill the inevitable void of Barnes, who weighed in with 13 Premier League goals in spite of Leicester’s fortunes.
This one would likely come as a loan as City will no doubt, just like any other elite club, wish to keep hold of Borges’ immense range of talents, but he seems a player reared and ready to stamp his mark.
