The Premier League are in negotiations to introduce up to 16 of their clubs’ Under-21s teams into the Football League’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy next season, as a means of giving academy-produced players a taste of real competitive football.

It is a major change in youth development in English football and for the competition itself, formerly known as the Football League trophy, which was inaugurated in 1983 and is contested by League One and League Two clubs with a final at Wembley that can be lucrative for the two teams.