Ruud van Nistelrooy’s coaching journey should give hope to Leicester City’s academy talents as the new manager keeps a close eye on the club's prospects.

The City boss has said he intends to get the club’s starlets involved in training often, even if just to increase the numbers for first-team drills. He included players from the academy in his first week of training at Seagrave, including prodigious 15-year-old winger Jeremy Monga.

Also training with the seniors under Steve Cooper, and travelling with the first-team squad to Manchester United for the Carabao Cup tie, Monga is perhaps the most exciting young player in City's academy. He scored the winner for the under-21s last Friday, a 2-1 victory over Nottingham Forest in the Premier League Cup.

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Van Nistelrooy's use of the academy in his first week bodes well that the youth ranks will be a prominent source of first-team players for City on his watch. His background suggests it will be the case too.

The Dutchman spent nine years working his way up PSV’s academy, from the under-17s, through the under-19s, to the under-21s. When he became the club’s senior manager, he promoted two of his under-21s, with winger Johan Bakayoko and attacking midfielder Ismael Saibari immediately becoming prominent first-team players.

Speaking last week, van Nistelrooy said: “I see many under-21s and under-18s and we’ve even had an under-16 player in this week’s training group, Jeremy. We see many and I like that, that we get to see the talents of the under-21s and under-18s.

“It might be defenders, midfielders, attackers or keepers, it’s good that they are, on a regular basis, part of team training. Also, the way I like to train and separate the groups, we need numbers as well. So it’s good to have them around and get a good feel for them, and see which ones we can keep.”

In October, City saw a six-year, 288-match streak of having at least one academy graduate in their senior matchday squad come to an end, with no place for a homegrown player in their 20-man line-up in the win over Bournemouth. It was a run to be proud of, and its end brought anger from supporters.

But the streak has since restarted and is now up to eight games. With Kasey McAteer starting both of van Nistelrooy’s matches and the new manager’s background, there will be hope that it continues right the way through the Dutchman’s tenure.

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