Man City using AI to map the gap between academy winger McAidoo and first-team star Doku

Manchester City are using artificial intelligence to measure the precise performance gap between academy prospects and first-team players, with teenage winger Ryan McAidoo being benchmarked against Belgian international Jeremy Doku as part of the club’s expanded Individual Development Programme.

Academy director Thomas Krucken told the Manchester Evening News that City have partnered with an external company to build a bespoke AI system that analyses position-specific data and presents players with a detailed picture of what they need to improve to reach first-team level.

“Where’s the gap between McAidoo and Doku? And what is it in detail to use the training time we have in the most effective way,” Krucken said. “We can’t just train five, six, seven sessions — it’s how we use the time.”

The initiative is part of a broader ‘Future Player 2.0’ strategy that builds on three years of individual-focused development under Krucken, who has set the ambitious long-term goal of producing a Ballon d’Or winner from within the City Football Academy. Former chief executive Ferran Soriano backed the expansion after seeing early results, authorising additional staff recruitment and specialist coaching training.

The programme already includes two dedicated individual sessions per week tailored to each player’s position and specific development needs. Forward Kaden Braithwaite, for example, targeted acceleration as a weakness and worked on it in isolation before integrating the improvement into group training and matches. Braithwaite, along with McAidoo and Floyd Samba, has since been promoted to the first-team squad this summer.

The academy’s recent record underlines the momentum behind Krucken’s project. City’s Under-18s won the FA Youth Cup final against Manchester United and claimed the northern league title, while eight academy players made their first-team debuts last season. Homegrown midfielder Nico O’Reilly was named the Premier League’s best young player, and minutes for academy graduates at the Etihad have risen 75 per cent over three years to 12,500.

The new AI system will operate alongside a large-scale tactical analysis unit — a three-by-five-by-three metre pitch-mapping vehicle developed in a joint venture with a Dutch partner — which City plan to use to generate the granular data that feeds the player comparison tool.

Krucken framed the technology as a way to close the final margins that separate a talented prospect from a ready-made professional. “When McAidoo came he was outstanding already,” he said, “but it’s about the last five, ten per cent, and to prepare the player for the demands of what we believe comes next.”