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Having signed Nicolas Otamendi to improve the current squad, Manchester City hope Cameron Humphreys will be a big part of their future.

The Blues have moved quickly - two days after his 17th birthday - to sign the young centre-back on his first professional contract.

Anyone who saw City in Australia this summer will not be surprised; Humphreys, along with fellow 17-year-old Manu Garcia, was a new face that stood out for all the right reasons.

Having worked extensively with both players last season, under-18s coach Jason Wilcox is confident they will be able to cope with rising expectations.

"It makes me extremely proud," he said.

"When I look at Manu and Cameron's journey we had some really frank conversations along the way, and you've got to have that with the players.

"As long as you're honest and have a development plan for them then I think they don't like it at the time, but those two in particular embraced what I had to tell them.

"Manu has had to adapt to a different culture, different style of football if you like and he's done it extremely well. It's no surprise to me whatsoever that he's done extremely well because of the type of lad he is.

"We've just had a group of Under-10s in the corridor and I brought Manu in to speak to them because he still lives at the CFA and he's a really humble kid who has got tremendous personal skills as well as ability.

"Cameron's exactly the same. He's been training, playing in front of 100,000 against Real Madrid. When he came back here the first thing he did was to come and watch his mates training.

"That tells me a lot about them and they're the type of people that we want to bring to our football club."

More EDS news

Despite their exposure this summer, the rise in profile of Humphreys and Garcia has been stark; the duo had started just seven EDS league games between them when they turned out against some of the world's best at the MCG.

But while the players adjust to life with Patrick Vieira and the EDS, Wilcox is confident that their experience in Australia will do their futures no end of good.

"Yeah, it was a surprise to see them do so well so early," he told M.E.N Sport.

"I always felt that Cameron and Manu had huge potential but sometimes its just that little bit of a pathway where the manager actually sees what we've got coming through and he's now able to trust those particular players.

"You can bring them into the squad, the sessions don't drop and the more times they're up there the more chances they have to train with the first team the better they'll cope with the tempo.

"It can only be good for them and good for the football club."