Manchester City will become the latest Premier League side to enter the Checkatrade Trophy, as The Citizens along with Tottenham Hotspur will enter academy sides for next season's competition.

Delighted to be involved

The competition, previously known as the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, was typically played between League One and League Two sides, but had a complete revamp last season as Premier League and Championship sides were allowed to enter U23 sides for the first time to some controversy.

City were encouraged by the tweaking in the rules with greater allowance of flexibility in selection and fixture dates, as well as themselves as Spurs Newcastle and Fulham will also be new entrants.

One of the positives of the top-tier clubs inclusion in the competition has been the increased game time of U23 players, and manager Simon Davies has stated that it will be a good opportunity for his young squad.

"We are delighted to be involved in this competition next season," Davies told mancity.com. "We feel it is a great opportunity for our most talented young players to test themselves in a senior environment."

“We want to keep finding new ways of improving the development path for our academy players," he added. "And this seems like a logical next step.”

Moving to a title rival

In terms of the senior squad it has already been a transfer window of transition for manager Pep Guardiola as he looks to rectify last season's disappointment, having broke the bank for Bernardo Silva and a world record for the young goalkeeper Ederson.

Guardiola has also shown no mercy as he has already had rid of a number of players, one of those was goalkeeper Willy Caballero but it hasn't took the Argentine long to find a new home.

It was announced that the 35-year-old has joined the current champions Chelsea on a free, with the Argentine becoming a direct replacement for their former second keeper Asmir Begović who recently joined AFC Bournemouth.

"I am very happy to join the champions of England," he said. "I am looking forward to meeting the guys and helping the club achieve more success."

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Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.