Burnley have reshuffled their youth set-up as the club gears towards Academy status.

Martin Dobson, newly appointed director of youth development, revealed he had made “key changes to key areas” involving the youth team and the Centre of Excellence, with immediate effect.

Within the shake-up, head of youth, Vince Overson, will now take charge of the Centre of Excellence, while Terry Pashley becomes the head youth team coach with Andy Farrell as his assistant.

Jeff Taylor has been appointed head of recruitment, after previously working as Burnley’s child protection officer/ Centre of Excellence administrator, and former Blessed Trinity RC College deputy headteacher Pat McKiernan has arrived as the club’s new education and welfare officer.

“The important thing is getting the blocks in place, as in the people that are going to be responsible for certain things,” explained former Burnley captain Dobson, who returned to the club in August to take up his current role, following previous experience with Bolton Wanderers.

“Before there was a lot of overlapping between roles, and no doubt in the first few weeks following the changes there will be until it is all ironed out.

“The key thing is that the youth team players are allowed to just concentrate on the football, and we can take all the pressures away to give them the best chance.”

The Clarets are only in the early stages of their bid to establish an Academy, with the completion of a £2million state-of-the-art facility at the club’s training ground a necessity. The fourth phase of Burnley’s £20million redevelopment of Turf Moor and the training ground has yet to be given the go-ahead, as the entire project has been hit by delays due to the ‘credit crunch’.

But Dobson insisted the reshuffle was all part of an ongoing process to develop Burnley’s youth system.

“These changes are for the here and now,” he said.

“I would like to think the chairman and directors are committed to getting Academy status, and they have gone on record with the redevelopment of Turf Moor and the training ground that around £2million will be pumped into the training facilities at Gawthorpe.

“But these kind of appointments are necessary if we do want to get there eventually anyway.

“We have to take it one step at a time, but they are defining lines.”

And Dobson highlighted recruitment as a key area within the set-up.

“I feel the area of child protection is so important, and Jeff Taylor was doing a terrific job there, but he was also responsible for scouting and recruitment,” he explained.

“From that point of view he was taking too much on board, but he can now put all his efforts into recruitment.

“This is the area of utmost importance; bringing quality kids into the football club and competing with all the other clubs in our area.

“We are building development centres because we can’t just rely on kids coming in from a five-mile radius of Burnley Football Club.

“Even 12-13 year olds can be an hour-and-a-half drive away now, so that takes in Manchester, Liverpool and parts of Yorkshire.

“You’ve got to keep moving forward and assess every age group all the time.”