CLARETS boss Stan Ternent believes that there is some promising young talent coming through the ranks at Turf Moor - and he hopes there will be even better to come.

In an effort to improve the youth development at the club plans are soon to be put forward to develop the club's Gawthorpe training ground to academy standard.

And as part of the push to improve the quality of young players at the club Ternent revealed that Burnley has just signed a highly promising Welsh schoolboy international striker, 16-year-old Rhys Carpenter.

"If he turns out to be as good as Leighton James or Brian Flynn we will be doing okay," he said.

But Ternent warned the club's Annual General Meeting that the days when Burnley is producing a mass of young talent are still some way off.

The manager was asked about youth development at the AGM and he explained: "If you go and watch reserve games you can see the progress the kids have made.

"The team is doing well with younger boys in it but the goal posts have moved quite a bit in terms of getting them into the first team. Anyone who comes in is going to be asked to play at a higher level, in the top 30 teams in the country. Sometimes when you take on schoolboys you then get promotion and that means the goal posts have moved.

"The young players have to reach higher standards. At the moment we have got some good and very promising young kids coming through.

"My intention is to get back to how Burnley used to be when you had someone like Arthur Bellamy come through but he never played in the first team until he was 21 or 22."

Terry Pashley's youth team squad features players like Earl Davis, Joel Pilkington, Andrew Waine and Andrew Leeson who have all been regulars in Ronnie Jepson's reserve side of late.

But Ternent admitted that the club has struggled in recent times to get the best young players because it has been in the doldrums, something that is now changing.

When Ternent himself arrived at Turf Moor as a teenager in the early 60s the club was one of the greatest in the land and therefore an attractive destination for any youngster.

"We have got some good kids but it has been difficult to attract the very, very, very best," he admitted.

"A lot of people in this room have watched Burnley for a lot of years but when the club was a conveyor belt of young players in the late 50s and mid 60s the club was established as a top flight team.

"The club was English champions, playing in Europe and getting to FA Cup finals so it was more attractive to the best kids."

The plans for the academy were discussed at the AGM by director Clive Holt who admitted: "We are trying to build the youth set-up at Gawthorpe and an architect has been appointed.

"We hope to make a planning application soon and we are aware of the need to meet certain criteria in terms of listed buildings and ground use."

The development is likely to cost in the region of £1.5million and is an indication of the determination of the club to improve the youth system in order to attract top quality young players to the club.

Ternent clearly hopes that Rhys Carpenter will be the first of many.