Elite Development Squad head coach Brian Barry-Murphy believes his new cohort can achieve even more than City’s previous Premier League 2 winning squads.

Our first home game at the Academy Stadium, where we host Aston Villa on Friday 25 August, will be available to watch live on City+ and Recast.   

And ahead of the 18:00 (UK) kick-off Barry-Murphy, who is taking charge of the EDS team for a third season, explained why he remains confident that his team are going to become something special despite a slow start to the campaign.

“I was under no illusions how difficult it would be at the start of the season based on my pervious experience in this role,” said Barry-Murphy.  

“No matter how much we speak about learning from failure or having the most learning from difficult games when you actually lose 5-0 it’s a very difficult emotion to go through, but it is the most beneficial.

“It’s a really exciting period for me and I’m so energised to see our players progress through this phase of the season and check our improvement throughout the season and see how much we can grow during the course of the whole season.”

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“The most important message I have for the players at the moment is that within the group there is probably enough individual talents that could even surpass what we done previously.”

Talking specifically on our third league game of the season, Barry-Murphy is looking forward to showcasing the new EDS team to fans on City+ and Recast, and what it means to call the Academy Stadium home.

“We feel really privileged to play in this stadium, for young players to have this opportunity to play in this stadium on a league basis is an incredible privilege because of how good it is and the pitch looks amazing,” said Barry-Murphy.  

“Our first game here this season [against Villa] and when it’s on City+ there’s that feeling of there is definitely more eyes on you.

“It links in well to the EFL Trophy and the European competition because the players naturally want to do better when all their family and friends are watching and it’s a very exciting game for us to come back into our home stadium which has been so successful over the last couple of years and try and build on that.”  

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