Premier League clubs looking to EFL for next Semenyo & Eze

Manchester City paid £12.5 million to Leicester City for winger Jeremy Monga last month. Arsenal had also pursued the 17‑year‑old, who joined Leicester at age eight and has already set senior‑team records. Monga became Leicester’s second‑youngest Premier League substitute in April 2025 at 15 years and 271 days old, earlier making his first league start and surpassing Jude Bellingham as the Championship’s youngest goalscorer. He exemplifies the more established end of a broader contest for home‑grown talent. Premier League clubs are increasingly turning to EFL and Scottish academies to bring players into their development structures, sometimes before those players have broken into senior football. Antoine Semenyo, rejected by several academies, was spotted by Bristol City while playing amateur football. After loan spells at Newport County and Sunderland, he established himself in the Championship, moved to Bournemouth for roughly £10 million and later transferred to Manchester City for £64 million. Ollie Watkins progressed through Exeter City, Adam Wharton through Blackburn Rovers and Eberechi Eze, released by Arsenal, rebuilt his career at Millwall and QPR. Recruitment departments view uncovering the next player capable of following a similar trajectory as highly valuable. BBC Sport’s investigation identified 14 players recruited from EFL or Scottish Premiership academies for Premier League development squads this summer. That figure matches the 14 such transfers recorded for the full 2025‑26 season; there were eight in 2024‑25, 18 in 2023‑24 and seven in 2022‑23. Of this summer’s 14 recruits, 11 are 18 years old, compared with only five of the comparable group last season. League One has supplied seven of the summer’s 14 signings, up from two in the previous campaign. Among the summer moves are Blade Earley (Cambridge United to Aston Villa), Valentin Joseph (Blackburn Rovers to Brighton), George Munday (Cambridge United to Brighton), Harrison Bettoni (Wigan Athletic to Chelsea) and Maxwell Adedeji (Leicester City to Tottenham). Monga is excluded from the 14‑player list because he had already broken into Leicester’s first team; his fee demonstrates how quickly a player’s value can rise once he proves himself at senior level. At 18, players have typically completed years of professional coaching but remain young enough to spend time in an under‑21 or B‑team setting before decisions on loans or first‑team opportunities are made. The financial outlay can be modest: nine of the 14 summer moves are listed as free transfers, with the remaining five involving undisclosed fees. Eight of last season’s 14 deals were also free transfers. For clubs accustomed to paying tens of millions for established first‑team players, distributing relatively modest sums across several promising teenagers offers clear appeal; a single breakthrough into a regular Premier League role can generate substantial value. The economics of academy recruitment have become a wider issue, with the Premier League discussing possible caps on compensation paid when young players move between academies with the EFL. Clubs losing youngsters may receive training compensation, future appearance‑related payments and sell‑on entitlements, while unresolved cases can be referred to the Professional Football Compensation Committee. Brexit has further reshaped the market. Before the end of free movement, English clubs could scout a large European pool without checking EU players’ UK work eligibility. Analytics FC, in a 2022 report with migration specialists Fragomen, estimated that roughly 60,000 professional players across Europe might have been available to British clubs pre‑Brexit. Under the Governing Body Endorsement framework, only about 5,000 would likely qualify for a licence—a reduction of approximately 92%. The restrictions hit younger players hardest. Liverpool’s Ifeanyi Ndukwe, an 18‑year‑old centre‑back from Austria Vienna, impressed in pre‑season but cannot play competitive matches for the Reds because he lacks a work permit; a loan abroad is expected to give him the experience needed to become eligible. Conversely, a teenager already progressing through an English academy faces no comparable migration obstacle. Analytics FC also found that Premier League 2 once produced more British transfers to EU clubs than any other English segment, but those moves had halved by 2021‑22. Brexit did not directly cause Premier League clubs to target EFL academies, but it altered the context in which young players are recruited and developed. There is no singular Premier League model for youth development. CIES data for 2025‑26 show club‑trained players accounted for 16.2 % of Manchester City