Petty: New Additions Give Under-23s Extra Edge

Development Squad
11 Aug 2019
2 Minutes
Assistant Senior Professional Development Phase Coach Ben Petty says the new additions in the Club's Development Squad gives them an 'extra edge' ahead of the 2019/20 campaign.

- Leicester City's Development Squad head to Everton in Premier League 2 on Monday
- The Foxes finished in 10th-place in Division 1 last season
- Coach Ben Petty has described the excitement the squad has ahead of the new campaign
- Live and free coverage is available from Merseyside from 6:45pm BST on LCFC TV

Leicester City's youngsters commence their new Premier League 2 Division 1 season away at champions Everton on Monday evening (7pm BST kick-off).

Alongside Senior Professional Development Phase Coach Steve Beaglehole, Petty and the backroom team have readied the squad on pre-season trips to Jersey, Poland and Belgium.

As the new campaign looms for the Club's next generation, they go into the season opener riding a wave of summer enthusiasm, Petty said recently.

"We are looking forward to it," he told LCFC.com this week. "I don’t think we could have got a much tougher opening game than Everton, the champions.

"But the lads are in great shape, they’re as fit as they’re going to be, and we’re looking forward to the challenge and what we hope will be an entertaining game."

Mitchell Clark, Vontae Daley-Campbell, George Hirst, Ali Reghba and Callum Hulme have all joined the Club this summer and will be in contention for the Development Squad.

Petty has been enthused by their impacts within the group so far and, alongside the players who have remained, he believes City's youngsters could enjoy a successful season.

"We’ve been really pleased with them, they’ve integrated into the group really well," Petty added. "We’re a little bit disappointed that George might not make the first game with an injury.

We’ve got a lot of talent to choose from in this group and we’re delighted with them in pre-season.

Ben Petty

"Overall, though, the squad’s looking good and hopefully the new lads can give us that little bit extra. We had a few boys get some great experience on loan last season and now we’ve got the group back together, apart from the ones who themselves have got some great loans.

"We’ve got a lot of talent to choose from in this group and we’re delighted with them in pre-season."

The Blue Army can tune into live and free coverage of the match on Monday on LCFC TV from 6:45pm BST.