PHIL Parkinson is having to put his faith in youth – and that’s just fine by him.

The Wanderers boss has, from day one, had his hands tied by the club’s precarious finances, not to mention a transfer embargo resulting from their money woes.

But you will not find him complaining – or using the dusty coffers as an excuse. Parkinson is getting the absolute best out of what he has at his disposal.

And with the backing of chairman Ken Anderson, he insists the club’s crown jewels will not be shipped out to balance the books, because the best is yet to come from the talented youngsters such as Josh Vela, Zach Clough and Max Clayton.

“The chairman has come out publicly and said he wants us to keep our best players,” he said ahead of tomorrow’s FA Cup tie at home to Sam Allardyce’s Crystal Palace.

“We’re trying to develop a club and build the club back up. If we can do that with a good core of our own young players that’s terrific, and these players’ value is only going to increase.

“Everyone knows financially we’re not in the strongest situation but the chairman identifies that we want them to grow with the club.

“In my eyes – Clough and Vela in particular – they’re only just starting to fulfil their potential and obviously we’re pleased with the progress today but there is more to come from both of those players, as there is with Max, because he’s only just got himself fit.

“It’s fantastic to have Max back, you could see in training today there was a real spring in his step and it is a big bonus for everybody.

“Everybody is looking for strikers and everyone wants someone who can put the ball in the back of the net and turn games.

“Max has shown that, although we knew he could do it anyway, but he’s got his Bolton career up and running again and we’re so pleased with that.”

Clayton’s return could hardly be more timely, as Sammy Ameobi – who has also shown signs of real promise – has been recalled by Newcastle United.

It is not yet out of the question that he will return to the Macron but Parkinson and Anderson have been preparing for the probability that he will be expected to stay with the Toon and fight for a place there.

“Sammy has gone back and that’s a shame, I don’t think it’s completely dead but they’ve called quite a few of their loan players back to thicken out their squad in this period,” added Parkinson. “We just thank Sammy for his contribution and we’ll see what happens with that one going forward.

“We’re looking at several situations, we’re working on the James Henry situation as we speak, and the chairman is making calls so I’ll speak to him.

“Obviously we’re looking at players to replace Sammy because we need to make sure the squad remains strong.

“This morning we only had 16 players training, and that was with a couple of the youngsters in there. So we are a bit threadbare when you take the injured players out of it, and obviously Keshi Anderson’s loan could possibly end as well. He was ill today so he didn’t train so if all of a sudden it starts looking threadbare we have to make sure it’s not the case.

“We’ve always had a strong bench this season hence we’ve got ourselves in a good position.”