Chief executive Simon Clegg insists that the Blues' Academy is amongst manager Paul Jewell’s priorities. The Town boss has been criticised for allowing a number of youngsters to leave the club over the last year and for not giving younger players such as Luke Hyam regular first team opportunities.
Clegg dismisses suggestions that Jewell is less interested in the club’s youth policy than has traditionally been the case with Town bosses: "I don’t accept that [the Academy isn’t amongst Paul’s priorities].
"Certainly, in my limited experience of managers at this club, Paul is out with the youth teams much more regularly than perhaps some other managers.”
Fans have been critical of the release of young keeper Cody Cropper amongst others, while players such as Tom Eastman, Caolan Lavery and more recently Callum Bennett have turned down professional contracts — in some cases on wages understood to be in the region of £250 a week - in favour of deals elsewhere.
Eastman joined Colchester last summer, Lavery came close to signing for Bradford towards the end of last year and has had trials elsewhere but is still a free agent, and Bennett has been offered terms by newly-promoted Sheffield Wednesday.
Clegg says youngsters, like more senior players, are offered the deals the club believes they are worth at that time: "We will offer appropriate contracts to individuals who we believe are worthy of contracts at a level which we think is appropriate for them.
"I’ve made it very clear that I’m not going to pay over the odds to bring players into this club and I’m not going to pay over the odds to young players who are yet to prove their worth.
"They’re only as good to this club as we believe they are worth,” he added. "The way that I judge how successful the Academy is is by its outputs — delivering players into the first team or driving money to help compensate the running of the Academy [if they move] elsewhere.
"The manager is heavily involved in those discussions in terms how much potential he believes each individual has got and how much they are worth.
"I think that we have amply shown that for the right players there will be first team opportunities at this football club — Byron Lawrence, Joe Whight, Connor Wickham — but Financial Fair Play is having an impact.”
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