CITY’S academy head of coaching Martin Drury knows the club’s Under-19s have a great chance of sealing the EFL Youth Alliance North East Division title.

But that very much plays second fiddle to the real objective, which is getting these young players professional contracts.

And on that front, City are on the verge of something special.

Drury said: “The players can enjoy the results, but as their coaches, we’re trying to get them pro contracts.

“Some have been offered them already and we hope some more will be handed out in the coming weeks.

“We’re set to break a record for players from the Professional Development Phase being offered a pro contract by City, so that’s success for us.

“We want to be competitive on the field, but if we were to win this league title, but not be handing out any pro contracts after, that wouldn’t be a good season for us.

“They’d normally only be given out to the older academy boys, but we asked if they could be offered to lads lower down, as we know their potential and quality, and the club have been able to.

“You can’t question the club’s belief in the academy and giving those even younger players a chance shows them and their parents that there’s a real pathway at City.

“They won’t be there just making up the numbers, they can be assets for the first team and the club’s business model, if they get sold to another team.”

Drury’s Under-19s finished top of the Youth Alliance table in the regular season, but now face merit fixtures/play-offs with the rest of the top five to crown the champions, though there is no promotion prize.

The first of those is at home to Rotherham this weekend, but whatever happens, Drury is proud of the teenagers’ efforts this season.

He said: “It’s been really rewarding, and it’s been a fulfilling experience to work with these lads over the last 12 to 18 months.

“They’ve bought into the culture of the club and the academy and they’re City through and through, whether it’s the ones who’ve been here since nine or 10 or those who’ve come in since.

“There’s a togetherness there that you can see in games and there’s some really talented prospects.

“It’ll have been rewarding for them to work with us staff, but it’s been rewarding for me to coach them too.”

On finishing top of the table, Drury said: “You could look at it, and it seems like we’ve focused on winning the league, but that’s not been the aim.

“We’ve not actually mentioned trying to win before any match, as every game and day in training is looking to improve them as footballers.

“But they’ve done well as a by-product of that, and in these last four games now, we’ll want them to show winning behaviours.

“The players are always trying to get better, so having the league does keep things competitive for them.”

There are two free weekends for City in the middle of this four-game play-off run, and Drury said: “We’re always mindful of rhythm, as when we we have it, we tend to perform to our potential.

“Covid, weather and cup competitions have given us a lot of breaks, but we’ve used those to give the players different experiences, like how we played a group from Manchester City last weekend.

“We’ve gone up against other teams higher up than us like Manchester United, Barnsley and Hull in those gaps too.

“So there might be games for us within these merit fixtures, just to keep the rhythm going.”