The door to the first team is open - Kruecken | OneFootball

Academy Director Thomas Kruecken says five senior debuts for our Young Blues across 2024/25 has been clear evidence that there’s a pathway for City starlets to first-team football.

Throughout the past campaign, a quintet of exciting Academy prospects were handed their debuts after impressive performances for the Elite Development Squad and Under-18s.

Nico O’Reilly, Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Kaden Braithwaite, Jacob Wright and Divin Mubama all featured in various competitions for Pep Guardiola’s men.

Speaking in his end-of-season interview, Kruecken highlighted this as a key positive for the Academy.

“We are really proud of our five debutants this season, especially Nico O'Reilly with over a thousand minutes around the first team,19 appearances and 14 starts, which is an unbelievable number for an Academy player,” said Kruecken.

“The second was Jahmai Simpson-Pusey. We're really proud that he is the first-ever defender to win the title of Premier League 2 Player of the Season.

“I remember Kaden Braithwaite's debut against Watford in the Carabao Cup. It was the beginning of the year after the UEFA Youth League game against Inter Milan. Pep and Txiki saw the game, four days later Txiki gave me a call 'Pep wants Kaden in the training squad', and a couple of days later, he made his debut, aged 16, which is great.

WATCH: Watch: How City won the Premier League 2

“Then Jacob Wright, what a fantastic character. He was with us for such a long period of time, and he deserved to be a part of the team at Norwich. We missed him when he went away [on loan] in January. But what a big success for him now to be a Championship player,” Kruecken continued.

“And Divin Mubama. We signed him last season from West Ham and he had a massive impact this season to win the Premier League 2. He scored lots of goals and he got the opportunity because of good performances and good behaviour on the pitch and off the pitch so it's great to see the motivation for the next generation of young talent coming through.”

They are a handful of debutants to join an ever-growing list under Guardiola’s reign, including previous Academy graduates Cole Palmer, James McAtee, Liam Delap, Rico Lewis, Phil Foden and Oscar Bobb in recent years.

The City boss has always spoken with admiration for the Academy which has provided exciting young talent to bolster his squad throughout his near decade at the helm.

And Guardiola’s words undoubtedly mean a lot to Kruecken and the Academy staff.

“I think for all of the staff it means a lot when Pep speaks highly about our work across the Academy and it gives us extra motivation,” Kruecken stated.

“The door to the first team is open and there is a pathway at Manchester City to the first team.

“We feel the trust from the people around the first team with our work and with our players.

“We have a close interface and good relationship to the first team, daily touchpoints and consistent communication makes sure our players get opportunities when the perform level and their behaviour is right.”