Leicester City’s final-day trip to Blackburn should see their promising talents get a chance to show why they deserve to have big roles next season.
City head to Ewood Park this Saturday for the final game of the campaign, one that is not the relegation showdown they hoped it might be.
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Instead, both sides’ fates are sealed, with Blackburn safe and City heading down to League One for just the second time in their history.
City’s relegation means there will be wholesale changes to the squad this summer, opening the door for the club’s best prospects to become fully-fledged first-team stars.
There should be a preview of sorts of that future side at Blackburn with manager Gary Rowett suggesting he will make changes.
He said: “The last game might be different because both teams will be, at that point, not playing for anything, and so that allows you to be more flexible with the team you pick. Certainly there will be some young players available to give good energy on the pitch.”
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Louis Page, Bade Aluko and Jeremy Monga, who all came on as substitutes against Millwall will be in contention to start at Ewood Park, and it’s their chance to show they should be starters next season too.
“We’ve got some good young players,” Rowett said. “They still need to learn some parts of the game, in my opinion, and do that better, but you can see Jez, Bade, Louis, we’ve got some very good prospects that can certainly play a much bigger part.
“In these moments for a young player, maybe that’s the opportunity you need. This might be an opportunity to put your stamp on the team and play a bigger role.”
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There might be potential for a debut or two as well. Centre-back Kevon Gray was on the bench earlier this season, while deep midfielder Tommy Neale and striker Kirsten Otchere were seen in first-team training earlier this month, and they will be pushing for a spot among the substitutes.
The trio are among the City Under-21s who have played the most minutes in Premier League 2 this season, along with left-back Mirsad Ali, utility man Ryan Donnelly, and attacking midfielder Logan Briggs.
All six would be making their debut if they were to get on the pitch at Blackburn and all should be available after the Under-21s’ campaign ended last Friday with a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham in the last-16 of the Premier League 2 play-offs.
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