Enzo Maresca has taken a closer look at Leicester City prospect Will Alves for the first time with the manager keen to make use of “cheapest investment in the world”.
Maresca has used six players so far this season who have graduated through the club’s ranks: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Hamza Choudhury, Kasey McAteer, Wanya Marcal, Jakub Stolarczyk, and Ben Nelson. Alves could become the seventh as he concludes his recovery from an ACL injury.
One of the brightest talents to emerge from City’s academy, had made a handful of senior appearances under Brendan Rodgers when he was caught by a nasty studs-up challenge in an FA Youth Cup game against Wolves last December that left him requiring surgery. Now coming to the end of his recovery, he trained with Maresca’s group for the first time this week, and could soon become an option in one of the two advanced midfield roles.
Knowing that bringing players through the academy is cheaper than signing them from elsewhere, Maresca says it’s important the club continue to produce “big treasures” that can help the first team. He said: “We have now, around the first team, five or six players from the academy. This week we saw Will Alves with us also.
“I think it’s the cheapest investment in the world to bring academy players. These kinds of players, I don’t know how much they cost altogether. We tried to work with the academy too.
“This week finally we saw for the first time Will Alves. All these young players are a big treasure for the club. They are from the academy and altogether I don’t know how much they cost. You see it with Harvey Barnes, Kiernan, Hamza, Kasey, Ben Nelson, Wanya, now Will Alves. This is important.”
City also have Sammy Braybrooke who will be in contention to step up into the first-team fold when he recovers from his own ACL injury. He is a week or two behind Alves.
With so many academy players currently in the squad, there does not appear to be any danger of them losing their streak of using club-trained players. In December, City will reach five years of having had at least one player from their academy in every first-team matchday squad. The streak currently stands at 243 matches.
