Manchester City defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis has signed a new four year deal to stay at the club until 2024.
The central defender, 18, made his first team debut in September 2019 in the Carabao Cup away at Preston and has gone on to make six senior appearances for the club.
Harwood-Bellis has been involved regularly with the first time in training and is seen as a bright prospect for the future.
He said: “I have definitely progressed as a player. I feel like I have progressed more in the last 18 months than any other time in my career.
“Even since lockdown, training permanently with the first-team, I have improved massively in my game in terms of being composed.
To be playing with the best players in the world in training, when it comes to games you have got to do what you do in your training.
“As a person you feel more confident being with men everyday so you have to hold your own and act like a man. It has definitely improved me as a person and I have become a better person and player 100%.”
And with so many of his peers on the cusp of making the breakthrough into first team action, and training with the senior squad as well, it’s an exciting time for him.
He added: “To have not just teammates but my mates I went to school with and being in the changing room with them has made a massive difference.
“You can go in and see the familiar faces of your mates that you are still in contact with. You can see how close we all are and when we come to play in the EDS we are altogether, all want to win and the attitude doesn’t change.
“By training with your mates and even in the free time you get playing pool, or eating together, you have got that bit in common and still have a good relationship with them.”