Man City could miss out on next Nico O'Reilly after pre-season change

Pre-season is often a time for young players to impress. A tour consisting of three or four games and a two-week block of training allows academy graduates on the fringes of a breakthrough to stake their claim.

Rewind a year and there were 16 youngsters in the squad for the four-game tour of the USA. That is more than usual but is often the case during a major tournament year, with many of City's senior squad still on holiday after the European Championship.

Of those players, Nico O'Reilly was probably the one who made the greatest impact, ending the season as a regular first-team player under Pep Guardiola. Oscar Bobb had already made his first-team breakthrough, but he went to another level when given the chance to impress Stateside due to those more senior absences.

These summers are often a valuable learning curve for young players, whether they make the grade at City or not. It exposes them to training with better players and show them how players at the elite end conduct themselves and look after their bodies. Those are lessons they can take into their careers at any level.

But this summer is set to be different for City and for those young players hoping to follow in the footsteps of someone like O'Reilly or even Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, who got a chance through injuries last season after touring and is now set for a loan move this season.

City's summer tour was effectively the Club World Cup, when the 27-strong squad picked by Guardiola was full of senior players. The reasoning was solid enough, with a tournament to be won and a desire to integrate new signings into a strong first-team environment.

That left the Under-21s to their own devices in pre-season. They have been back for a couple of weeks and have spent