Manchester City are set to get a closer look at a group of returning loan players in the coming weeks, with Enzo Maresca expected to assess where each one stands in the first-team picture. The club’s loan record has become a talking point after several disappointing outcomes last season, and the next stage will be to decide who is ready for another step forward.
Last season, Claudio Echeverri spent time on loan with Bayer Leverkusen and then Girona, while Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Claudio Echeverri and Sverre Nypan were frozen out at their loan clubs. Vitor Reis and Divine Mukasa also had difficult spells after suffering relegation. Those outcomes left City with more questions than answers about how their young players were being developed away from the Etihad.
What Maresca will be evaluating
In a few weeks, Maresca will welcome most of those players back to first-team training, giving Manchester City a chance to judge the impact of their loan strategy up close. That does not automatically mean every player will be given a pathway into the senior squad, but it does mean the club can finally reassess them in a clearer environment.
Manchester City brought in Hugo Viana after Txiki Begiristain left, and one of the areas the club wants to improve is the loans market. That shift matters because City have traditionally preferred to keep their best youngsters at the Etihad rather than send them out on loan, but last season showed that not every external move delivered the expected progress.
For Manuel Akanji and the rest of the senior group, the return of these players is part of a wider squad management picture. Some may prove ready to compete for first-team opportunities, while others may need another loan move to get the minutes City want to see. Either way, the next few weeks should give Maresca and the club a better sense of which youngsters are moving in the right direction and which ones still have work to do.
