BRENDAN Flood has been to South America as he takes a hands-on approach in unearthing Burnley players of the future.

The Clarets operational director has been to the continent to establish links with scouts in the hope of staying one step ahead of their rivals and finding upcoming stars, while perhaps also boosting Burnley’s foreign player quota in the process.

Flood recently discovered the Turf Moor outfit currently lag behind other top flight teams in that department.

“We did some research and found Burnley’s foreign player content is 17 per cent, but the average for the Premier League is 66 per cent foreign representation,” explained the Rossendale-born businessman.

Two of those are Peru goalkeeper Diego Penny, Burnley’s first ever South American import, and Ecuadorian Fernando Guerrero.

“We are probably a long way off having our full quota of non-UK players, and in order to compete you’ve got to open your mind to that,” added Flood, who has taken it upon himself to broaden the Clarets’ scouting horizons in a relatively untapped market.

“I travelled the other week to meet up with scouts from South America and the USA to look for talent emerging from those nations.

“The opportunity to get players internationally is definitely better when you are in the Premier League.

“We’ve established greater connections abroad, and we’ve seen in Fernando Guerrero that South America can produce fantastic prospects.

“That’s something where, at board level, we are doing the farming for future years.

“Owen’s very much committed to seeking out assets for the future, while trying to retain his priorities to win every Saturday afternoon.

“I see it as my job, as much as anybody’s, to try to find those players for the future, then Owen can give his professional opinion on their ability to play at Premier League level.

“You’ve got to build relationships with people who are respected in those locations, and once you’ve made a choice on those, you trust their word in the first instance.

“The ideal position is to bring them in on trial or on loan, like Guerrero, because you’ve always got the risk of how they are going to settle and how they would play in UK conditions.

“But we are looking well beyond this year as to how we get the best players possible.”

While Premier League survival is of paramount importance, Flood is equally keen to focus his attentions on youth development at Turf Moor.

All proceeds of his book, ‘Big Club, Small Town and Me’, which charts his involvement on the Burnley board, will go towards the club’s youth development, while he is pushing for the estimated £2million project to achieve Academy status to begin and take the club onto another level.

“The success we’ve had in the last couple of years, in the Championship and with the cup runs, and now we are in the Premier League we are more appealing for families to commit to with their young proteges,” he said.

“I think that’s evident with the signing of Kevin Long (from Cork City).

“Everton and Celtic were after him and he chose to come to Burnley.

“I think whilst we are popular we really want to make a fist of it and try to secure our strength in depth through youth development over the next five years, which will enable the club to finance itself as much as possible.”