Wedneday is just another day at the Manchester City Football Club training complex at Platt Lane Fields in Fallowfield. Inside the indoor practice facility YTS trainees indulge in a little 'football tennis', using a five-a-side goal as a net. Outside, coaches prowl, whistles in one hand, the obligatory ball under the opposing arm, as the reserve players are put through their paces
Just across from the main practice pitch is another, smaller. Astrofturf, and it is here that Manchester City sets itself apart from the rest of the footballing elite. Trainer Wayne Richardson is barking orders to the member of the Cheadle and Marple College Lacrosse Academy as they go through the warm up. Academy Director Alaistair Hodgson and his coaching staff overlook proceedings, ready to set up some goals and get drills going as soon as Richardson has worked the 45 minute coach journey out of the legs of the assembled teenagers.