Academy manager Ben Chenery believes loan moves play an important role in a young player’s development.
Short-term switches to clubs in non-league and the lower divisions have become a regular step in an academy player’s development over the last couple of decades.
Currently Town have the likes of Jacob Mazionis and Tommy Taylor out in League Two at Cheltenham and Fin Barbrook with League One Lincoln, while Ash Boatswain joined National League Woking until January last weekend, scoring on his debut.
Rio Oudnie-Morgan recently moved to Billericay for his first spell away from Playford Road and keeper George Barrett is at Canvey Island, while midfielder Tyler Young joined Chatham for a spell on Friday.
"I think loans are really important,” Chenery said. "Historically, when I look at loans of young players, the first loan is probably not always hugely successful for some players, some it is, some it isn’t.
"And I think they can draw upon their experiences from their first loan in their second and third because we put them in environments which probably are very different to the environment they’re in now.
"Maybe a different style of manager, different demands, different behaviours. The training pitch might not be up to the standard they expect, which I get, but they have to find a way.
"I always talk about being that chameleon and being able to fit into your surroundings quickly and once you can align with people at the football clubs and you get that instant respect.
"I think loans are invaluable, but we must make sure when we send these young people on loan, we support them. I’ve been very proud of the work that we’re doing within our loans department right now to make sure they are supported.
"We have regular contact, regular feedback with the football club that they’re at and I think it’s a really strong arm of ours at the football club at the moment.”
Like former Bury Town boss Chenery, new loans manager Danny Searle, who also joined the club in the summer, has strong non-league connections having managed Braintree, Aldershot, Ebbsfleet and Hastings in the past.
"Danny’s been fantastic at this and me having some non-league experience it enables us to pick the phone up and speak to people because it’s all about trust,” Chenery added.
"Of course, players have ability, but when you speak to a manager who’s at the coalface and on a Saturday at three o'clock needs three points, they have to trust the player.
"They’ve got to trust in us the staff to say, ‘look, take this young player, there’s a lot of positives, there are some things that we believe your environment will allow him to get better at and to give him that experience’.
"And I will always say to these clubs, they’ve got to earn the chance to play. Of course, we want them to play, but they’ve got to earn the chance to play and they’ve got to be given a fair opportunity, which they will.
"It’s important that we send them to the right football clubs. That’s for us to do our due diligence. Danny and I, we’ve got that experience of Saturday three o’clock in non-league and that gives us the ability to draw on those contacts and use our experience to place people at the right football clubs.”