Brendan Rodgers must be thrilled to see that the youth set up at the club brings forward a large number of talents that he can look at as he decides on his next move. With both Papy Mendy and Hamza Choudhury on the fringe, and hopeful of a move away from the club, eyes can be put on Sammy Braybrooke as the youngster progress through the ranks.
The U.23 side played Everton recently and Braybrooke was a vital part of that set up, still just 17 years of age. He is also a very tiny type of player and not the tallest one, but his energy and eye for a quick and accurate pass is one of his greatest qualities.
Leicester avoided the drop from the top last season and gladly so with the club in a bit of transition with a number of very young players coming through and getting to play in the U.23 team. We have seen players reaching their age to move on after not getting into the first team set up and that leaves a massive gap to fill for current coach Ben Petty.
This is a difficult balance as players in this category also are considered to be good loan options for clubs in the lower end of the league pyramid. The fact that a great number of players also are shipped out and moving on will of course test the club in this department.
Embed from Getty ImagesSammy Braybrooke did show us all against Everton that he can cope with this level and his playing style gives us all hope of a new and energic prospect coming through. He has allready cought attention at international level representing England U.18 in a friendly v. Wales earlier in the year, and of course exciting to see a new recruit taking those steps with Harvey Barnes, Ben Chilwell and Luke Thomas going the same route.
Results have been a bit up and down for the U.23’s with two draws against Man Utd and Blackburn, a massive defeat v. Crystal Palace and this nice and energic win v. Everton. We do believe that the young midfielder that trained with the first team in pre-season will progress further.
Embed from Getty ImagesHis style is also a bit aggressive and as we did see against Crystal Palace and Everton he can be exposed at times as he was given the yellow in both games, but hopefully that will be something to work on as the team needs his presence and not see him missing games because of this.
It will be exciting to follow Sammy Braybrooke going forward and if his progress continues we all know that Brendan Rodgers can be willing to give him some first team look in’s in the EFL Cup so not surprised to see his inclusion going forward.
TCF believe in youth and how they can take the next steps and should be the place to look instead of buying fringe players for massive amounts without really having the instant need for their services. Leicester cannot go on buying more as the club needs their youth programme and seeing players coming through is the way we would like to see it happen.
Next up for the U.23’s is an away fixture v. Brighton on Friday the 24th of September. We will hopefully see the team in the same way as they are eager to pick up more points and climb the ladder.
Embed from Getty ImagesThere are great talent around and with Sammy Braybrooke getting more game time and hopefully add vital experience to his game at his very young age, it will be interesting to see how far this energic type of a player will get.
This is a young and new fine group of players coming through interesting to watch as the season progress and hopefully we will see Brendan Rodgers looking at this team as a possible recruitment area rather than going into the transfer market and buy players for the future.
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