BURNLEY are planning to set up a number of satellite coaching centres and spread their recruitment policy into the other home nations in an effort to increase the flow of players from their youth set-up to the first-team squad.

The Clarets are actively looking to bolster a policy that is currently struggling at youth team level but flourishing just below that within the club's burgeoning centre of excellence.

And the next step is to develop satellite sites in the likes of Skipton, Bacup and Chorley to nurture young talent in those areas and then to spread the scouting net to bring in extra scholars (formerly apprentices and then trainees) from a much wider area at the age of 16.

Jeff Taylor, the Clarets centre of excellence supervisor, explained: "We do have a very good centre. If you look at our record we are probably one of the best in the North-West, particularly at the younger end. "What we want to do is maintain that standard by getting good young ones in and if we can get three or four scholars through every year after under-16 level we have done very well.

"At that stage we also need to be looking in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

"The competition is very fierce and that's why we never get all of our scholars out of the centre of excellence and need to look further afield to get up to the standard we had in the seventies.

"It's 20 years since we signed a schoolboy international (Trevor Steven), although we have got one or two good ones coming through."

Burnley are in the same catchment area as the Manchester and Liverpool clubs, Leeds and Lancashire rivals Blackburn, Preston and Bolton when it comes to the recruitment of young players.

They therefore need to extend their scouting network to bring in potential professionals that can't attend the centre of excellence because of travelling guidelines laid down by the FA.

It will take a lengthy commitment but Burnley are determined to restore their reputation as a club capable of producing home grown players. Taylor added: "After the John Bond era they kicked the youth system into touch. Five or six years on from that we won the Lancashire Youth Cup at Maine Road after beating Blackburn heavily here at Turf Moor.

"That prompted them to spend some money while we went backwards, although in the last three or four years we have started to pick up again. But it's a long-term project.

"At Leeds they have a £3 million budget and their chairman is talking about a five or ten-year project.

"I am trying to encourage kids coming in at seven or eight so it can take 10 to 12 years to see whether they will make it as a player."

While Burnley are now a top-half of the table First Division side many of the players that are currently in the youth team came in when the Clarets were struggling in Division Two, although the likes of Brad Maylett and Anthony Shandran have come through to make into the first-team squad.

The juniors therefore have some catching up to do but Taylor, who works alongside centre director Jimmy Robson, believes that will happen.

He added: "We are probably under-achieving at the moment and that might be the case for the next 18 months or so but after that I see a lot of decent kids coming through.

"And there is the promise of some of those that are already coming through making it. The priority is the first team and funding has to be channelled towards the first team. But there is a very strong will to produce a youth programme that's successful. We have a centre of excellence that is vibrant and the club is fully behind it. The youth set-up has under-achieved but hopefully it will be brighter." CLARETS YOUTH SET-UP FACTS

Boys as young as six receive coaching in a pre-centre of excellence group

The centre of excellence runs from under-9s to under-16s with three hours of coaching and a match each weekend for every age group

Burnley employ 17 part-time centre coaches, nine of which are former professionals including Burnley old boys Vince Overson, David Miller, Ashley Hoskin, Phil Malley, Les Thompson and Andy Farrell and former Clarets goalkeeper Craig Mawson, who is now with Halifax Town

Up to the age of 14 youngsters can only be recruited from a distance within one hour's driving time of the centre. Above the age of 14 the time goes up to one-and-a-half hours

After the age of 16, successful youngsters will be taken on as scholars which can be for up to three years, combining football with academic studies

Each club is given funding for a maximum of 18 scholars every three years

Clubs can take on extra scholars but each place costs approximately £15,000 to fund

Those scholars that make the grade, in the opinion of boss Stan Ternent, will be awarded professional contracts

Burnley players to have come through the youth set-up in recent years include: John Mullin, Brad Maylett, Anthony Shandran, Matty Heywood, Craig Mawson and Chris Scott. Current scholars Earl Davis and Joel Pilkington have forced their way into the reserve side this season