How far is Ryan McAidoo from being able to do what Jeremy Doku does for City’s first team? City are using AI to help answer that question.
City academy director Thomas Krucken has revealed details of a new project designed to give the club’s youngsters a much clearer idea of the areas they still need to improve.
Speaking to Simon Bajkowski of the Manchester Evening News, Krucken explained that City are trialling the system with an outside company as part of their ‘Future Player 2.0’ programme.
McAidoo can measure himself against Doku
City have developed position-specific KPIs and feed training data into the project. For a winger such as McAidoo, that means his numbers can be compared with players including Doku and Antoine Semenyo.
It isn’t just about telling a youngster that he needs to get better. The idea is to show him where the gap is and then use his individual training time to work on it.
Krucken says City already have a clear idea of the attributes they want from players in each position. AI is being used to add another layer to that work.
There is some impressive evidence behind the academy’s recent progress too.
City say academy graduates played 12,500 first-team minutes last season, around 75 per cent more than three years ago. Eight youngsters also made their senior debuts during 2025/26.
McAidoo is one of the latest trying to make that jump.
City’s academy has produced plenty of footballers good enough for the Premier League and beyond. The harder trick has always been producing players good enough to stay in City’s first team.
Now they’re getting AI involved as well.
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