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Manchester City 's youngsters will play in the Checkatrade Trophy next season against League One and League Two clubs.

The Blues have decided to enter this season's competition – which ends in a final at Wembley Stadium – to pit their promising youngsters against lower league professionals.

Pep Guardiola and City's academy bosses are believed to have given their blessing to their participation in a competition which could see young stars like Brahim Diaz , Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho pitted against senior professionals at lower league teams.

That means some of brightest young stars will get valuable experience in a competition which drew a 74,000 crowd for the final between Coventry and Oxford, and in which City's first team played in 1998-99, when it was the Auto Windscreens Shield.

City and other top Premier League clubs were invited to take part in last season's competition but reluctantly declined because the fixtures tended to clash with the youth international calendar and they felt that they would be unable to put out a competitive team.

Liverpool and Arsenal are also believed to have been tempted to enter by the switch in scheduling.

Last season the academies of ten Premier League teams, including Chelsea, took part, along with six from the Championship.

The current format sees the lower league teams and academies split into groups in the early part of the season, with the top two in each group qualifying for a knockout phase from December onwards.

City will effectively enter their elite development squad, but fans should not be booking any Wembley trips just yet.

Last season Chelsea, who are the strongest academy in England, finished bottom of a group that contained Swindon, Oxford and Exeter.

Only seven of the 16 academy teams made it through the group stages, and only Swansea made it as far as the quarter-finals, where they were knocked out by eventual winners Coventry on penalties.