Burnley's academy chief on the need to get young stars into first-team

Burnley’s academy boss Chris Casper is determined to “buck the trend” and finally get an academy prospect into the first team.

Long gone are the days when local-boy-done-good Jay Rodriguez would turn out regularly for the Clarets.

While a handful of debuts have been handed out in recent years, to the likes of Will Hugill and Tommy McDermott, they’ve mostly been sparing appearances during the final minutes of relatively meaningless cup ties.

Kian McMahon-Brown, however, was named on the bench for Burnley’s Premier League clash at Everton in March.

With the club now boasting a Category One academy, Casper believes the time is right to finally bring a prospect through.

“It's a privilege to be the academy manager of my hometown club and the club that I grew up supporting,” he told the Burnley Express.

“I’m about 18 months in now and hopefully we're starting to go in the right direction in terms of developing players and ultimately to develop players for the first team.

“It's not happened for too many years really over the last 20 years. We've got to buck that trend. Hopefully, with the players we've got coming through, that will change.”

When asked how close the club is to getting a youngster breaking through, Casper added: “Ultimately, it's down to 1) for the players to be good enough and then 2) for the manager to pick them.

“We can do all we can to prepare them and challenge them and develop them, but I believe in them.

“Like I say, I think the improvements we've made over the last six to nine months in particular have been really good. We'll keep on doing that and hopefully we'll get the chances.”

Ironically, this season’s relegation to the Championship might actually improve the chances of the club’s youngsters getting a chance.

“Obviously the Premier League and the Championship are different levels, as we all know,” Casper said.

“But we've had three lads involved in matchday squads as well this year, which again is an indication of how close they are to a Premier League appearance.

“A Championship appearance would be a different type of experience as well, because it's a different level, it's a different challenge, but we'll see what the new season brings.”