Taylor Harwood-Bellis has impressed Pep Guardiola (Picture: Getty)

Manchester City are set to reward defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis with a new contract after the teenager made his first-team breakthrough for the club.

The centre-back made his senior bow in City’s 3-0 Carabao Cup win against Preston in September and has trained with the first team on a regular basis since late August.

The teenager impressed on City’s pre-season tour of Asia with senior members of the squad privately admitting they were ‘blown away’ by the defender’s maturity.

Guardiola has been forced into changes at centre-back due to a long-term knee injury sustained by Aymeric Laporte and a thigh issue that has kept John Stones sidelined.

Harwood-Bellis is set to sign a new deal (Picture: Getty)

City were interested in Harry Maguire before his move to Manchester United last summer but, aside from the £80m fee, the club felt a new signing would block the progress of Harwood-Bellis and fellow academy graduate Eric Garcia.

The club are keen to safeguard Harwood-Bellis’ future and Metro.co.uk understands he will be offered a new long-term deal at the Etihad.

Guardiola on Harwood-Bellis' progress, September 2019 ‘From now on, he will train with us. Whether he will play or not, we’ll see. The guys from the Academy spoke really well about him before pre-season. I saw in pre-season. He is aggressive, he wins duels, he pays attention.’

The 17-year-old is understandably one of the lowest earners in the squad, though he receives bonuses for any appearances made in the first team.

The deal is likely to be in the region of £10,000-a-week and reflects the defender’s progress in the last six months, as well as his status as a first team member.

Harwood-Bellis captained England’s U17s at last summer’s European Championships and is a boyhood City fan. He was recently spotted in the away end at Goodison Park as City ran out 3-1 winners against Everton.

City hope to have Stones available again after the international break for their clash against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

Fernandinho has been filling in at centre-back with Guardiola unwilling to throw Harwood-Bellis or Garcia in at the deep end in such an unsettled backline.

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The Brazilian’s absence from his usual position in front of the defence has caused an imbalance in midfield and Guardiola was furious with the lack of pentration in City’s 2-0 defeat to Wolves last Sunday.

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