NO-ONE can accuse the new regime at Bury Football Club of not casting their net far and wide in the search for exciting new talent.

In the near future, accents from the other side of the globe may be heard among the Lancashire, Yorkshire, Welsh, Scottish and Irish twangs currently echoing round the Gigg Lane corridors.

The reason why? Manager Chris Casper has given the go-ahead for club conditioning coach Jimmy Petruzzi to use his extensive connections in Australia and the USA.

The ground-breaking idea is to forge links with American colleges and Australian soccer clubs in a bid to allow the Shakers to tap into a too rarely investigated source of quality young players.

After coaching over there in recent years, Petruzzi has close connections with a number of US colleges and universities and he has seen them, first hand, produce talented footballers for the prestigious national Major Soccer League over there.

The States are currently ranked by FIFA as the eighth most powerful footballing nation, one ahead of England.

Their meteoric rise has followed their success in the 2002 World Cup when they reached the quarter-final stage and consequently the profile of the game over there is growing all the time.

Youngsters who may not have given a second thought to the sport in the past are now taking it up and keen to make a career of it.

One such player, Audren Cashman, will be arriving for a trial period early in the New Year, and he could be the first of many aspiring stars to make the trip from across the pond.

"The beauty of an arrangement like this is that it costs nothing," explained Petruzzi.

"And it can be a two-way arrangement. In the past I have sent young players who have been released by clubs over to American universities where they can carry on playing College Bowl football and study for a degree. Some of our players might be interested in that.

"Coaches out there can tip us off if they see a player who looks good enough to make the grade over here and, at a club like Bury, they'll get a better chance of first team football than one of the bigger teams."

The two set-ups Petruzzi is in contact with are the Lindsey Wilson College, Columbia, Kentucky, whose coach is Ray Wells and the University of Dayton, Ohio where coach Dennis Currier will be on the look-out for talent.

Cashman comes highly recommended by San Francisco Seals coach Paul Aigbogun who has seen the powerful midfielder progress into one of the best prospects on the college soccer scene.

Currently staying with his grandparents in France - he has duel nationality as his mother is French - the 24-year-old also has the option to return to the States for trials with Los Angeles Galaxy of the MSL.

Always open-minded to new and innovative ideas, Casper is more than happy for Petruzzi to use his networking skills to bring in possible recruits.

"Jimmy has a lot of excellent connections and has a first class reputation both in America and Australia," he said.

"We need as many good contacts as possible, the more you have, the better the chance of bringing in a useful asset, sooner or later it has to pay dividends."

Petruzzi hails from the multicultural Fairfield area of Sydney and that just happens to be a neighbourhood that provides no fewer than seven of the successful World Cup qualifying Australian soccer squad, Liverpool star Harry Kewell as well as national coach Guus Hiddink's assistant Graham Arnold, who he is already in contact with.

"It could do Australian clubs a lot of good if they were known to have links to an English team," said Petruzzi.

"If a young player has a choice between two clubs over there and one of them has connections to a Football League team it's sure to be more of an attraction.

"Obviously, they would want a sell-on fee if the player made the grade over here but that needn't be a problem."

And Petruzzi hasn't ruled out the possibility of Australian players on the lookout for first team football ahead of the World Cup, coming to Gigg Lane on loan.

"The idea is still in its infancy but it's worth exploring," he said.

"Any player would have to be of the right calibre and what Chris is looking for, but there must be about 10 to 15 players in the squad who out of first team contention that might be able to do a job for us.

"Wages might be a sticking point but, who knows, it might be possible to sort something out.

"Okay, we are only a League Two side but players looking for match fitness might be prepared to make a move.

"It's an important few months for Aussie players ahead of the World Cup and they need to be playing competitive first team football."