Man City braced for major challenge after four key academy exits

Thomas Krucken is looking forward to introducing some new ideas as he takes over from Jason Wilcox as academy director at Manchester City.

When the German finally takes his seat this week after serving his notice at Stuttgart, he won't be the only one looking to make an impression. Krucken takes the most important job in the academy but three of the most senior roles under him have also changed since the summer with head of UK recruitment Stewart Thompson, head of coaching Stephen Torpey, and head of operations Charlotte O'Neill all moving on; Joe Shields left as head of recruitment last year, with Sam Fagbemi now 12 months into the role.

All have gone (or are going) to bigger and better things, a testament to the outstanding work they did in making City the best academy in the country. As well as bringing players through to the first team under Pep Guardiola, the Under-21s and Under-18s have won their leagues for the last three years in a row and there have been record sales of homegrown talent in successive summer transfer windows.

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The fact they have all been allowed to leave around the same time is also in keeping with the policy across the club of not keeping people who come with offers elsewhere that they would like to take up, just as Riyad Mahrez wasn't prevented from leaving this summer despite being under contract and Oscar Bobb was the only first-team prospect kept around to beef out the first team squad. City would probably point out that if they were that concerned with so many key departures, they wouldn't be allowing O'Neill to move within the