BURNLEY boss Stan Ternent is hoping for a £500,000 redevelopment of the club's Gawthorpe training ground to groom the Clarets of tomorrow.

Ternent wants to upgrade facilities at Gawthorpe to improve Burnley's centre of excellence and help create a conveyor belt of young talent.

And supporters may have a part to play in helping raise finance for the project through a trust fund.

The current set-up at Gawthorpe leaves Burnley hard-pressed to cater for the number of young players coming to the club for training and assessment from ages nine to under-19s.

And with Ternent keen to produce home-grown players at Turf Moor, some of whom would start out in the centre of excellence, he knows the facilities need to be improved.

Upgrading to full academy status under the FA's guidelines would be beyond Burnley, with Ternent revealing that Sunderland have spent £10 million on their new set-up.

But the Burnley manager would like a redevelopment plan to include a new gym, four changing rooms, an upgraded treatment room, and an area for parents.

"I want to produce our own players and get the youth development side up-and-running," confirmed Ternent. "When I leave here I want to leave it in a better way than I found it and that's one area I can do it in.

"I was brought up in that sort of system and a lot of the better players that came through from Burnley were home grown. We need to produce our own, it's vitally important now.

"It's an idea, a vision if you like, but we want to get back to that. But I need some help with Gawthorpe. We need a half-a-million to get up and running.

"Then if we produce one Glen Little it would pay for itself." A new gym at Gawthorpe would also help Ternent's senior squad in preparation for matches, particularly in a week like this one when other training surfaces have been frozen.

The club does, of course, have a leisure centre at Turf Moor but the funding behind that means it has to be open to the public which restricts football club use.

Ternent therefore wants any Gawthorpe development to be self-financing to be available solely for Burnley's players of today and tomorrow.

Yet despite the recent injection of £3.8 million from chairman Barry Kilby and the proceeds of the club's share issue, other pressing needs, including servicing a near £4 million debt, mean that is not straightforward.

As a result, supporters could have a role to play in channelling their fund-raising efforts into a 'Gawthorpe trust' to help realise Ternent's dream.

Kilby told a meeting of supporters' clubs' representatives at Turf Moor last night: "If there is going to be some trust fund from supporters it should be to some capital project.

"That (centre of excellence) could be something that's really Burnley Football Club, for youngsters coming through, that will be permanent.

"That may be something that a trust fund could do, something that means something, will be there forever and something we stand for."

Meanwhile, Clarets fans were told at last night's meeting to brace themselves for a rise in ticket prices next season.

"Tickets have been held for three years but we will have to look at some form of increase at the end of the season," confirmed director Clive Holt.

Supporters will no doubt be more pleased to hear that they may have a say in the design of the Burnley strip which follows the one currently being produced for next season. An announcement on the suppliers is expected in the next few weeks.

And some form of Turf Moor museum for club memorabilia is also in the pipeline if security and cost implications can be ironed out.

"It will happen. This summer we hope to do something just to try it out," said club historian Ray Simpson.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.