Duo watched as Steve Cooper keeps close eye on potential Leicester City stars.
The Leicester City manager has highlighted the importance of loans spells and says he and his team are regularly watching those on temporary deals away from the club.
Steve Cooper’s staff have been to watch Ben Nelson and Tom Cannon in action with the Leicester City manager keen to keep tabs on the club’s loanees ahead of potential futures in the first team.
Nelson and Cannon are two of 10 players City have out on loan this season with a host of prospects given the chance to improve with what they hope will be regular senior football. And while his focus is on the players he’s coaching at Seagrave, Cooper is eager to keep up with how the loan players are getting on. It’s also understood he requested January recall clauses be written into all of their contracts.
City are currently recruiting a new loans manager, whose job will be to develop relationships with clubs with a view to sending players out on temporary deals, to mentor those already out on loan, and to give feedback on their progress to Cooper. The manager knows that these are players who he could soon be managing in the first team.
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Nelson, who had been due to link up with the England Elite League Squad (formerly Under-20s) this international break before having to pull out with injury, is particularly well-liked by Cooper. The centre-back has long been earmarked as a star of the future and is unbeaten in his three appearances with Oxford United so far.
Speaking just before the international break, Cooper said: “It’s a big part of a Premier League club’s operation now, loans and with a loans manager, monitoring players and keeping up relationships and things like that. We’re all very much involved.
“When we can, first-team staff will go to as many games as we can. We’ve already been to see Tom and Ben and one or two others. And obviously we have recruitment staff (going to games). So there’s a constant monitoring of how these players are doing.
“These loans can be a really important part of an asset at the club’s development. Sometimes, with a loan, it doesn’t always go as a player would hope. It can be seen as not going to plan in terms of not getting the game-time and the minutes, maybe not playing well.
“Look at Tom, he came off at half-time and then scored four the next game. What a brilliant experience for a young player, to have that disappointment of not such a great day and then the high, especially for a number nine, of scoring four goals. We’re all very involved in the loans. It’s an important part of developing players who could become part of the first team.”
One of City’s loanees did get international game-time this week. Sammy Braybrooke, on loan at Dundee, was a late injury replacement for the Elite League Squad, but played 90 minutes at Doncaster on Monday in a 3-0 victory over Czechia.
