Manchester City are considering interest from a number of Championship clubs to loan young defender Max Alleyne for the season. The 21-year-old is expected to return to Manchester in two weeks when Enzo Maresca will meet his new players, but will likely head out on loan again before the end of the transfer window.
Alleyne's Rise at City
Alleyne, who impressed Pep Guardiola soon after moving up to City from Southampton at the age of 16, was hailed as one of the best young defenders in Europe by City's Under-21s coach Ben Wilkinson two years ago, and then won praise last season out on loan at Watford. Having monitored his progress, the Blues then drastically recalled Alleyne in January when Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias suffered significant injuries in the same game.
Alleyne had a dream start to his City career, making his Premier League debut for the club after just one training session and then scoring days later in the FA Cup. He suffered a bruising few days with defeats to United and Bodo/Glimt, but did well overall and the club were grateful to him for cutting short his loan and stepping up when he was needed.
Pre-Season Plans and Loan Strategy
Maresca will take a look at Alleyne this month and he could feature on the pre-season tour to Asia with City likely to be missing some of their centre-backs. Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis should travel, but Ruben Dias and Marc Guehi are both still at the World Cup while Josko Gvardiol has only recently been knocked out.
However, City are also looking to give Alleyne the best possible chance of getting regular football in a good team where the defender can make the progress that had to be cut short last season. With interest registered already from a number of leading Championship clubs, the Blues and Alleyne are working out what they hope will be the most successful plan.
