Bit part unproven youngsters who haven’t pulled up trees in the second tier of English football being targets for the runaway leaders of the Scottish league.
Does that show the real level of our youth team system or Scottish football?
The real improvement in the quality now coming through our Academy stems from the great strides we have made as a football club in the last six or seven years.
When we were in league two we would be scouting 14 to 16 year olds who we saw developing at a lower league 1/2 level.
When we became Championship/ Premier League we had to change our focus and scout young lads from top end premiership teams but even that was initially a problem as Academy wise we could only offer regular games against west country academy teams.
So we had to offer another incentive with educational links with Leaf Academy and Brockenhurst College with the lads being well looked after with host families. Also opportunities to be loaned out to clubs at various levels of the football pyramid.
Joe Roach has done amazing work in establishing our Academy.
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