While Doyle was leading City’s Under-21s to a Leasing.com Trophy triumph at Bradford last week, fellow teenager Harwood-Bellis shone for the first team, playing alongside Eric Garcia at the heart of our defence in an impressive 3-0 Carabao Cup win at Preston North End.
Two more of Doyle’s EDS colleagues – Adrian Bernabe and Alpha Diounkou – featured on the bench at Deepdale with Spanish midfielder Bernabe coming on as a second half substitute.
Doyle himself made a strong impression on our pre-season Asia Tour where he shone in our opening Premier League Asia Trophy win over West Ham to impressive effect.
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And his exciting potential was praised again by Guardiola in his pre-match press conference ahead of our Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb earlier this week.
For his part, Doyle admits seeing the impact made by the likes of Harwood-Bellis is a huge source of inspiration - both for him and the rest of the EDS squad.
“I am really proud of the lads that have gone up with the first team and they deserve it,” Doyle declared.
“We are all in this together and when people get a chance (with the first team) it’s absolutely fantastic and inspires us all.
“When lads go up it’s great for everyone.
“From a selfish point of view, you want it to be you but if that doesn’t happen you need to keep trying and looking to improve.”
Doyle has made a big impact with the EDS squad after moving up from Under-18 level this season with manager Paul Harsley naming him as captain at the start of the season.
Harsley says the midfielder is a keen student with both the player and his coaches eager to keep helping him develop in order to take the next step forward.
“We are working with Tommy all the time,” Harsley revealed.
“Sometimes he gets a bit carried away with the ball but that is us nit picking. It’s just to try and make him keep getting better and to try to help him get in the Carabao Cup.
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“He’s a great kid, a great character. He’s captain of the team and we are starting to see some real leadership from him.”
Harsley was also effusive about the boost of seeing so many young players involved with the first team squad at Preston.
Reflecting on the opportunities afforded to so many young players by City manager Pep Guardiola, he said it was source of great pride for everyone in City’s Academy.
“It’s brilliant because the manager (Pep) is more than willing to give the lads an opportunity,” the EDS head coach added.
“He saw them on the pre-season tour to Asia, he sees them with us, and he sees them in training, and it makes everyone proud.”
