Season Concludes For Our Academy Sides

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Season Concludes For Our Academy Sides

City’s Under-21s lost out in a Premier League 2 play-off fixture against Southampton following a 10th place finish, while our Under-18s ended the season 12th in the U18 Premier League.

2025-05-19T15:30+01:00

by Sam Jones

Published

19 May, 2025

Season Concludes For Our Academy Sides

City’s Under-21s lost out in a Premier League 2 play-off fixture against Southampton following a 10th place finish, while our Under-18s ended the season 12th in the U18 Premier League.

Sam Jones

2025-05-19T15:30+01:00

Season Concludes For Our Academy Sides

City’s Under-21s lost out in a Premier League 2 play-off fixture against Southampton following a 10th place finish, while our Under-18s ended the season 12th in the U18 Premier League.

Sam Jones

2025-05-19T15:30+01:00

Season Concludes For Our Academy Sides

City’s Under-21s lost out in a Premier League 2 play-off fixture against Southampton following a 10th place finish, while our Under-18s ended the season 12th in the U18 Premier League.

Sam Jones

2025-05-19T15:30+01:00

Season Concludes For Our Academy Sides

City’s Under-21s lost out in a Premier League 2 play-off fixture against Southampton following a 10th place finish, while our Under-18s ended the season 12th in the U18 Premier League.

Sam Jones

2025-05-19T15:30+01:00

In the newly formatted league of 26 teams, we managed nine wins and four draws from the 20 games played in the first stage.

Safely securing a spot in the play-offs – which the top 16 qualify for – the Foxes headed to the South Coast to take on Southampton in what was effectively a last-16 tie.

Down by three after an hour, the youngsters rallied and scored three goals of their own inside the last 10 minutes to get back level; Sammy Braybrooke, Henry Cartwright and Jake Evans with the goals.

Unfortunately, the effort to push the game in to extra-time was too much for the Foxes, who conceded twice in the additional half-hour to be eliminated by the Saints, bringing our season to a close.

The campaign started with defeat to Southampton back in August before a first win of the campaign against Liverpool. Successive wins in Seagrave against Middlesborough and Stoke City ensued in late September.

The Development Squad made the PL2 play-offs.

Aside from the league, City came second in Group B of the Premier League Cup, ahead of Hull City and Coventry City, below Nottingham Forest, with 10 points. Qualifying for the knockout stage as runners-up, we lost out 2-0 to eventual finalists Queens Park Rangers in the round of 16.

February saw the best run of form for the Development Squad, winning five on the bounce, beating Norwich City, Newcastle United, Derby County, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, scoring 10 in the process.

Evans was our top goalscorer, netting 10 in 14 PL2 outings, placing him sixth in the leaderboard, just two behind the leader, and at just 16 years of age.

It’s been a far more challenging season for our Under-18s, who finished the year third bottom of the U18 Premier League South Division with 23 points, but did so with a young squad, following the progression of many through to the senior set-up.

Winning six and drawing five of the 24 games throughout the season, Leicester scored an impressive 51 goals, which is more than anyone in the bottom half of the table, and four more than Aston Villa, who won the division.

Jake Evans' form for the Under-18s led to a call up to the Under-21s and then First Team this term.

The season got off to a flyer, beating West Bromwich Albion 5-2, in which Evans scored twice, catching the eye of the Under-21s squad, sparking a five-game run which only included one defeat.

A tough end to 2024, we only earned one more point in the calendar year, drawing 1-1 with Crystal Palace in October, before being eliminated from the FA Youth Cup by Chelsea for the second year in a row.

In late January, we completed the double over West Brom, coming from 2-0 down to win 4-2 on home soil after goals from Reiss Khela, Kaleb Dyke, Bismark Owusu and Maxwell Adedeji.

The next month, fortunes turned around for the Under-18s, who went four unbeaten with three wins – seeing off the advances of West Ham, Brighton & Hove Albion and Norwich, scoring a remarkable 16 goals in the process.

A season of development for the Under-18s.

A testing campaign came to its conclusion with a 1-0 reverse to league leaders Villa, but even though the young Foxes, coached by Adam Barradell, took their learnings on the pitch, the pathway has continued to thrive.

Evans, who has gone from netting a brace in the U16 Premier League Cup Final in May 2024, to making his First Team debut 11 months later against Brighton, is just one to have risen through the ranks.

At just 15 years and 271 days, Jeremy Monga became the second youngest player to ever feature in the Premier League, coming on at King Power Stadium against Newcastle United, having since caught the attention of the Leicester faithful and many others.

A bright future ahead for both, fellow Academy players Henry Cartwright and Olabade Aluko have also been included in matchday squads this season, showcasing the incredible talent developing in Seagrave.

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