Manchester City youngsters set to have big impact on U21 European Championship final

Talk of a ‘treble’ can seem routine to several of the precocious footballers preparing for Saturday's European Under-21 Championship final in Georgia. A startlingly high number of them were, after all, in close proximity to a historic treble with their club employers only last month.

Encouragingly for Manchester City, new holders of the European Cup, serial winners of the Premier League and custodians of the FA Cup, the summer is beginning with abundant evidence their next generation of stars are as gifted and eager as their seniors. As many as five City footballers could be involved when England’s U21s take on Spain in Batumi for the title of Europe’s best up-and-coming national side.

Four from City could, at some stage in the game, form the spine of an England team seeking their first Uefa title in this age-group for almost 40 years. Spain’s City starlet, Sergio Gomez, meanwhile, is one of six Spaniards seeking to extend their own remarkable dynasty. In 2017 Gomez was among the winners of the European Under-17 title. Two years later Spain followed up with the Under-19 version. Add the Under-21 crown and that’s a very special, junior treble.

It’s also the sort of continuity coaches working with teenagers barely dare dream of, a smooth trajectory in which potential identified in a schoolboy player develops, as hoped, through all the physical and psychological changes of late adolescence. And it survives the perils and traps of a nascent professional career, where many prodigious talents choose the wrong club, or the wrong coach and find their opportunities for advancement stalling.

The sizeable City connection among the finalists speaks of the club’s fine scouting and careful nurturing of talent. Not only are City the