Reputation for developing young players helped Cobblers sign Manchester City youngster

The 20-year-old central defender was confirmed as Northampton’s 10th summer signing on Monday and there’s every chance he will go straight into the squad for Tuesday’s Carabao Cup first round tie against Wycombe Wanderers.

Cobblers have an excellent track record with recent young loanees – most notably Kieron Bowie and Marc Leonard – and both Mbete and Man City will be hoping they can do something similar this season.

"His physical profile and his ability on the ball,” said Jon Brady when asked what attracted the club to Mbete. “He's obviously had some experience with Huddersfield and Bolton when he was very young.

"For him it's about getting consistent game-time and we've shown we have done that with our loans in the past and that's what he wants because he's looking to develop his career.

"He's had a good pre-season so far, playing against Barcelona and Celtic which would have been great experiences for him, and he's been in the England Under-21 team so I feel it's a great acquisition for us.

"The work we've done developing young players has helped and I've got a good relationship with Phil Robinson (head of emerging talent at Man City) and he's helped Luke coming to us with his agent as well and they've seen what we've done with young players and that's helped this one over the line. I'm delighted to have Luke with us.”

Mbete was part of the City squad that travelled to America for the club’s pre-season tour so he’s ready to play, as Brady confirmed that he intends to use the young defender in various positions.

"Luke's played more than most,” added the Town boss. “Obviously we have to be careful but he's come in and should be able to play more minutes than most.

"He's versatile and can play across the back-line. He can play left centre-back in a four, left centre-back in a three and also at left-back and that's what we needed because it really balances out our back-line.”