Ngumoha and Dowman are the two names in particular many are talking about because of how young they are.
The two England youth internationals have certainly made an impact in their 28 minutes on the pitch, with the Liverpool teenager scoring the winning goal against Newcastle, and Dowman earning a penalty against Leeds United.
Are they exceptions to the rule or the new norm?
“I don’t think it’s going to be a common thing that you’re going to get loads and loads of minutes played by players at this age,” said Wilkinson.
“This year you’ve got some exceptional players of that age generation who are probably capable of playing now, but I’m sure you won’t see them play a huge amount of minutes over the course of the season.
“Those players are probably down on what their match minutes would be from last season because they’re not playing in their development football.”
Is it just coincidental timing, or have changes in football governance changed the way clubs approach youth development?
“I think it’s a coincidence, it wasn’t always going to happen,” Morrison answered.
“A lot of players now are maybe maturing earlier. Unless you were a real superstar, managers weren’t ready to throw them into the limelight straight away.
“You see players like Jude Bellingham when they burst on to the scene at such a young age, they were ready.”
Clubs are consciously trying to make their academy players ready for first-team football, with Manchester City exposing their players more regularly to adult professionals.
They play in the EFL Trophy, have entered the Premier League International Cup and also played friendlies against senior sides in pre-season and during the international break.
“I think our games programme this year is really, really good in terms of how can we give the lads the best possible programme to kind of edge them closer to that first-team side,” added Wilkinson.
“It might mean we are not as successful because we have got some really, really difficult games but, from a development point of view, hopefully the lads will learn more and develop faster.”
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