GONE are the days when a local lad could be snapped up from non-league and walk straight into the Wanderers first team.

Tony Caldwell was the classic example, a part-time electrician costing all of £2,000 from Horwich RMI, he still holds the distinction of being the only post-war Bolton player to score five goals in a single game.

Jason McAteer was famously spotted by Phil Neal playing in the footballing backwaters of Marine. Five hundred quid – later used by the Merseysiders to buy a new roof – and a bag of balls later, and the midfielder was on the path to the World Cup finals.

Recent rags to riches tales have proved rare. Ex-defender Chris Basham worked in McDonalds and studied at college before Wanderers picked him up as a teenager, while current squad member Kaiyne Woolery made a brief debut last season, less than a year after signing from Tamworth.

Taking the wider view, Rickie Lambert, Charlie Austin, Anthony Pilkington, Jamie Vardy and last season’s Macron loan hero Adam Le Fondre have shown the new-fangled academy route need not be the only path to stardom.

But is it an avenue that Wanderers can no longer afford to ignore?

Bringing through home-grown players is a joy to see.

The importance of a Zach Clough, Josh Vela, Andy Kellett, Oscar Threlkeld or Tom Walker getting a regular chance to shine cannot be under-estimated to Wanderers right now, especially given their financial constraints.

Yet the days of Bolton buying in ready-made talent appear to be fading. And that means they have to cover a lot more bases in order to find talent from elsewhere.

Neil Lennon has already tapped into his network of Irish contacts to look at a few such players, and the appointment of Iain Brunskill last season brought with it a huge working knowledge of the North West football scene.

But there is more work to be done. Wanderers need to make more effort with the clubs around them.

Brunskill’s development squad will be playing today at Atherton Colls in front of what promises to be a sun-soaked packed-out crowd at Alder House.

It surprised me to hear that this is the first time such a fixture has ever been played. There is certainly no mention of Colls in Simon Marland’s superb “Complete Record,” which is referred to simply as “the Bible” in our office.

Other than the annual friendly against Chorley – now managed by ex-Wanderer Matt Jansen – it is strange to me that we don’t see more games like this arranged right on our doorstep.

Before Dougie Freedman left last season, he explained to me how he was trying to build more local bridges with a view to loaning out more of his younger players.

Bury were the chief focus. A few players have travelled that way in the last 12 months, most notably Joe Riley and Rob Lainton, but it was only after Freedman’s departure, and Brunskill’s arrival, that you could realistically describe the arrangement as a “relationship”.

Bolton-born Shakers boss David Flitcroft talks in glowing terms about the work Brunskill has done, and there is evidence to suggest there will be more business done between the two clubs in the future.

Bury fans may wrinkle their noses at that suggestion. But with behemoths like United and City on your doorstep, I believe it’s sensible to seek strength in number, so why not work together?

I’d also argue there is a moral obligation for Wanderers to get out and play more games like the one we’ll see today at Colls. They already provide excellent facilities for competitions like the Hospital Cup – and I know that is hugely appreciated – but to send out a representative XI and put a few hundred more fans on the gate at Colls, Atherton LR, Daisy Hill and the like would make the world of difference.

Building up the goodwill locally can only be a good thing. Maybe, just maybe, there is another Tony Caldwell out there, fixing plugs and playing football a few days a week, who could save Wanderers millions somewhere down the line?