The future is bright.

Espanyol tomorrow face Chievo as they kick off in this seasons youth cup looking to progress from the groups.

last seasons losing finalist certainly have a team which should progress to the knock out stages.

Leonardo who spear headed last seasons campaign has moved to Italian giants Juventus. A new look attack sees Broja, Kalimuendo, Elanga and Almada tasked with producing the goods. Whilst Stiller who was pivotal in the sides run last season will be joined in midfield by Sarr.

At the back Martel has been brought in to partner Sangante who continues to improve and is seen as one very much to keep an eye on this season.

Japanese youngster Sasaki takes the reigns in goal and will need to be at his very best if Espanyol are to progress to the latter stages.

GIven the strength within the Espanyol academy, its mouth watering to think the likes of Ben Seghir, Fernandez, Rodriguez, Guler, Nkubu, Hartman, Gomez, Karpukas, Hansen, Chaibi and Simic are not part of this seasons roster, although as the competition progresses with updates, some of these are likely to come into play.

“We are really pleased with the squad, so many of our youth team are now getting first team experience and with the ones waiting in the wings we have the potential to be very strong in this competition for a number of seasons. It was a gamble to let Leonardo go, but we felt with Ben Seghir likely to come through in the next 12 months and having Broja here for the next couple of competitions it was a gamble worth doing. Given the recent capture of Rodriguez, we now have an abundance of riches in young strikers playing a big clubs and already making a real life impact.”

“The intention is the players within this seasons youth team will make natural progression to our first team. We already have Almada, Stiller, Kalimuendo and Hickey getting regular first team action, and with young players like Smith-Rowe, Vieira, Ilic and Garcia already main stays in the first team set up at 22 its certainly going to get competitive. We always knew our un-planned promotion would cause us issues this season. Being in division 1 two seasons too early is a minor setback. However we have not changed the path/strategy. We will enjoy the lights of division 1 this season with the knowledge relegation is certain. We wont be trading our assets for aging ratings to get a stay of excecution in division 1. This would be counter production in my opinion. We are sat on a gold mine of talent and as that matures this team is going to become a real force. Its took us 187 games to get to this point, a lot of scouting, trading and hours upon hours of negotiations to build a team which i believe represents one of the most promising squads in the gameworld. We dont need to buy or sell and have ample players in all positions who can only get better.”

“The youth cup gives us an opportunity to take a peak at the future, and although the trophy is very low on our priority list, it gives us a chance to see these players in action and build a picture of what the long term could look like”