Sam's Vision - Part Five

"Sam's vision is to eventually have at least 50 per cent of the players in the first team squad being home grown," reveals Wanderers' academy director Chris Sulley. Chris Hall investigates further . . .

IF English football's bank balance continues to crash alarmingly into the red, Bolton Wanderers could find themselves perfectly placed to lead a new world order.

The loss of income from the collapse of ITV Digital provided a Trojan horse which no irresponsible Nationwide League chairman could look in the mouth, with a string of mis-managed and massively over-budget clubs using this golden excuse as they reveal their 'sudden' financial crisis.

And, barring the money machines at Arsenal and Manchester United, whose realistic business plans have ensured a healthy income for the foreseeable future, even Premiership clubs are beginning to feel the pinch after throwing money at star signings reaped scant reward.

The one positive offshoot from the threat of financial meltdown is that clubs are slowly waking up to the fact that the best investment they can make is in their own youth set-up.

Happily for Wanderers, Sam Allardyce came to that conclusion years ago.

"Sam's vision is to eventually have at least 50 per cent of the players in the first team squad being home grown," reveals Wanderers' academy director Chris Sulley.

"Sam's very aware of the need for a strong academy. We have to provide regular reports for him and he's very interested in who's doing well, who we are signing and if he can help in any way with that process.

"He watches our games from time to time and promotes a few of them into the reserves to see them in that environment."

Sulley, a vastly experienced former Blackburn and Cheslea player, actually pre-dates Allardyce's Reebok reign, lured by Colin Todd in 1998 after successful coaching spells with Rovers and Preston North End.

His appointment is now beginning to bear fruit, not least in the rise to international prominence of midfield protoge Kevin Nolan, who has earned his first England Under 21 call-up after being funnelled through Sulley's academy ranks into a regular first team berth.

Now his former mentor is using his breakthrough as an inspiration for his latest prospects, including teenage defender Danny Livesey.

"Kevin has burst through very quickly and really has been the trail blazer for the boys," says Sulley.

"Now they can see they will get an opportunity when they are ready and that the manager and board here believe in promoting players from the youth team.

"They see it is the overall vision of the club to continue to develop young players and give them an opportunity in the first team.

"Danny is a great prospect. He's very mature for his age and nothing seems to faze him. He's a very talented player and, although he still needs to develop certain areas of his game, the raw ability and mental attitude is there."

The route into senior first team football is becoming an increasingly lengthy process, with Sulley snapping up children as young as six years old to try and mould them into the way of the Wanderers.

"That's the new battleground," explains Sulley, sensing the scepticism raised by plucking a child barely out of the nursery to become the next Michael Ricketts.

"We can't officially sign them until they are in their ninth year but we do need to catch them early because children's motor skills are at their most receptive between the ages of six and 12.

"If we can get these boys coached and developed technically from that early age, that will lay the foundation for them to develop.

"They are eventually given contracts that vary from one to four years, depending on their age.

"In their 16th year, you make a decision on whether they will get a scholarship or not. That gives them a guaranteed three-year educational package, with a one-year option on their football development. Pro contracts can be signed from 17."

The Football Association has recently imposed strict limitations on youth recruitment, with each club restricted to only signing players living within 90 minutes travelling distance of the training ground.

But Sulley has worked hard to exploit a loophole in the directive, overseeing an innovative scheme to tap a fresh seam of young talent across the Irish Sea.

Ballymena FC, governed by the Football Association of Ireland, are exempt from the new law and have agreed to become something of a feeder club to the Wanderers academy.

"We went out there to look at their facilities, to help develop their coaching education and their development programme, with an understanding that we could have first viewing of the players they had coming through," says Sulley.

"Sam then really added weight to the link-up by taking his whole team over there to promote the opening of their new stand and play an exhibition match. That was a great help.

"Ballymena is only the beginning. We are trying to make links around Europe to supplement what we are doing in the north west of England.

"Our priority is to get players from the north west and Bolton area but the stepping stones towards achieving that goal is to build links with clubs abroad like Ballymena."

With the foundations now firmly in place, it should not be long before Bolton have an academy as famously productive as the likes of Crewe Alexandra, Liverpool and Manchester United.

Among their next crop of potential Premiership stars are Welsh U21 international Mickey Byrne, England schoolboy Michael Gillen, Swedish U21 star Duong Tach and Northern Ireland's Wayne Buchanan.

But Sulley and Allardyce are well aware that developing these players is only half the job and that persuading them to stand by the club when first team opportunities are at a premium, could hold the key to the club's future success.

"At worst an academy is an insurance policy," added Sulley.

"If we get relegated, providing we are doing things right, we should have enough good young players coming through to be able to show some of the big earners the door. That's certainly the case at the moment.

"But as we get more established in the Premiership, it gets harder for our players to break through and this has been our biggest thrust.

"We have set out a strategy this year to give these fringe players more one-to-one personal development in their physical, technical and psychological programmes because they are very much still part of the manager's plans.

"We will also look to loan players out to get them some first team experience somewhere else. Hopefully all that will help them develop into first team players for Bolton."