Ben is currently getting his first taste of life with the senior squad on the post-season tour of Thailand & Hong Kong, but he and several of his FA Youth Cup-winning team mates look set to be called over to the Carrington training ground when pre-season begins in early July.
It’s a prospect that excites Ben, who says: “It will be a test, but it will be a good test for us to find out where we can push ourselves to. I’m looking forward to it and I can’t wait to show what I can do next year.
“Platt Lane has given me a great base to progress from. I’ve learnt a lot from Alex Gibson and Jim Cassell, as well as everyone at the Academy. It’s been a good start on the road of where I want to get to.”
It’s been a long season, but despite the additional time out in the Far East Ben says that fatigue has not set in, adding: “I’d be happy to carry on, every footballer would say that – I’d probably get bored a couple of weeks into a break. You want to play as much as you can, have a little break and then get back into it again.”
Ben has been with City for nine years, and the side that brought the Youth Cup back to City for the first time in 22 years have formed a solid bond during their time at the Academy, which he thinks will continue after some of them move up to the senior set-up.
“We are a tight-knit bunch, we socialize a lot together as well as being together at Platt Lane. We’re a good bunch of lads and we’ve known each other for a long time, we all get on very well and I think that when we’ve gone over to Carrington that will continue.”
