The 21-year-old midfielder, who skippered the likes of Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho during an eleven-year rise through City’s academy, has signed a two-year deal at Meadow Lane.

Having left City for Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2019, Francis captained the Molinuex outfit’s under-23s on several occasions while helping them to the league title.

The following season he was included in the first-team’s pre-season tour, but an untimely ankle injury dented his chances of breaking into Nuno Espirito Santo’s plans for the 2019/20 Premier League campaign.

Following a Covid-curtailed loan move to Swiss side Grasshoppers, Francis took the brave decision to cancel his Molineux contract in pursuit of first-team action elsewhere.

This paved the way for a move to League Two side Harrogate Town last December, where he made a positive impression in his 20 appearances - albeit in a less favourable role.

County boss Ian Burchnall told https://www.nottscountyfc.co.uk: “Ed had his first real taste of senior football at Harrogate last year but it probably didn’t go exactly how he wanted.

“He found himself being used at full back quite a lot, but I know he sees himself as a holding midfielder, as we do.

“Our aim is to develop him into as good a player as he can be. You can see that a lot of the boys we’ve signed have the capacity to go on and develop further, which is what we want in the squad – hunger to get better all the time”.