SOUTHEND United’s youth coaches remain fully focused on bringing through the Shrimpers’ next young guns.

The Blues academy now accommodates more than 150 players.

And the club’s lead youth development coach Danny Heath is delighted to see the Shrimpers set-up thriving.

“A lot of work goes on here and a lot of the credit must go to the part-time staff who take the age-groups and play a big part in what we do,” said Heath.

“It’s a big commitment because the players aged nine to 16 train three times a week and also have a game at the weekend too.

“They train six hours a week and the older age-groups do eight hours.

“We have 150 kids in the academy system now and we have the shadow squad too so there’s a lot going on but I think it’s brilliant.”

Heath has been with Blues for the past 10 years but is now enjoying his fourth season as a full-time coach.

And he is a big fan of the work being done to help more young players work their way into the club’s first team.

“Ricky Duncan is someone I look up to a lot and he’s very open minded to new ideas and taking things forward,” said Heath.

“That’s something we do well so we’re always getting better and that benefits the players.

“The most rewarding thing of what we all do is seeing a player go through to play for the first team or sign his first professional contract.

“We’ve seen that happen quite a few times just recently but all this work is being done so that it can keep on happening.

“The academy is certainly in a good place at the moment and we have a lot of very good players here but everyone knows they must keep working.”

DUNCAN DEFENDS YOUTH STRUCTURE

SOUTHEND United’s Ricky Duncan has leapt to the defence of academy systems.

Brentford, Huddersfield Town and Wycombe Wanderers have been among the clubs to shut down their own production line of producing players.

But Duncan believes England’s success at the under 17 and under 20 World Cups proves academies are still working.

“I’m always surprised when people come out and say the academy system isn’t working when we’ve just won two World Cups,” said Blues’ head of academy.

“They must be doing something right if players are being produced who can perform on that stage and win big tournaments.

“I don’t agree with shutting academies down but maybe it’s not the academy that isn’t working there it’s the people above..”

And Duncan feels pressure heaped on manager’s shoulders, especially at Premier League level, could prevent them handing more young players an opportunity.

“The way football is going if you lose three of four games then you can lose your job and as long as that’s hanging over managers you’re always going to have this problem,” said Duncan, “When chairmen believe in their manager they might be more inclined to give young players an opportunity.

“But you can’t blame the academies because they are definitely producing players.”

And Duncan is happy to be doing that at Blues.

“We’re seeing the likes of Dru Yearwood and Elvis Bwomono coming through and it’s great they’ve got the chance,” said Duncan.

“It’s been 11 or 12 years of hard work but we have a fantastic reputation now.”

BROWN PRAISES PRODUCTION LINE

SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown feels the Shrimpers should celebrate their production line of players.

Brown is fully aware of how many youngsters have been selected this season and he remains proud to have chosen a product of the club’s youth system in all of 238 games in charge.

“I really do think we should be celebrating how many players are coming through,” said Brown.

“I divide the squad into A, B and C categories. C is the players aged between 18 and 23 and that group has made up 30 per cent of the selection this season.

“I make it 378 players who have been picked and 115 of those selections have been aged 23 or under which shows how good the youth policy is here.”