When Manchester City paid £12.5m to sign Jeremy Monga from Leicester City last month, they were not alone in wanting one of English football's most highly rated teenagers. Arsenal also coveted the 17-year-old winger, but City won the battle for a player who joined Leicester aged eight and has already broken records in senior football. Monga became Leicester's second-youngest Premier League player in April 2025, aged 15 years and 271 days, before becoming their youngest league starter and surpassing Jude Bellingham as the Championship's youngest goalscorer.
He represents the more established end of a wider battle for young domestic talent. Premier League clubs are increasingly looking to EFL and Scottish academies for players who can be brought into their development structures, sometimes before they have established themselves in senior football. Antoine Semenyo was rejected by several academies before Bristol City spotted him playing college football.
After loans at Newport County and Sunderland, he established himself in the Championship before joining Bournemouth for about £10m, then Manchester City in a £64m move. Ollie Watkins came through at Exeter City, Adam Wharton at Blackburn Rovers and Eberechi Eze - after being released by Arsenal - rebuilt his career at Millwall and QPR. For recruitment departments, finding the next player capable of following a similar route can be enormously valuable.
Man City sign Monga - how good is the 17-year-old? BBC Sport research has identified 14 players recruited from EFL or Scottish Premiership academies for Premier League development squads so far this summer. That matches the 14 such transfers made across the whole of 2025-26.
There were eight in 2024-25, 18 in 2023-24 and seven in 2022-23. More striking is the profile of this summer's recruits. Of the 14 identified, 11 are 18 years old.
Last season only five of the 14 players in the equivalent sample were 18. League One has also become fertile ground, providing seven of this summer's 14 recruits, compared with just two last season. Among the youngsters to have moved so far this summer are Blade Earley from Cambridge United to Aston Villa, Valentin Joseph from Blackburn Rovers to Brighton, George Munday from Cambridge United to Brighton, Harrison Bettoni from Wigan Athletic to Chelsea and Maxwell Adedeji from Leicester City to Tottenham.
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