Town have offered 17-year-old Brightlingsea Regent midfielder Rob Harvey a three-week trial at Playford Road.

Harvey (pictured above, left) and fellow Regent youngsters Mekhi McKenzie (right) and Harry McDonald (centre) were among a number of local trialists to play for a Blues U21s team in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Chinese side Beijing Guoan on the 3G at Playford Road in December.

Harvey, who has already made 16 appearances for the third-placed Ryman League North Division club’s first team, and McKenzie were both among the scorers as Town won 5-2.

The trio are students with the Colne Football Academy, which works in partnership with Regent.

@twtduk the whole club is behind you Rob 👏👏👏👏 go for it !

— Terry Doherty (@RegentTerry) January 25, 2017

“We’re delighted all three boys have been given this experience and it’s great that Rob now has an extended opportunity to prove what he can do,” Colne director of sport Jon Taylor told the Colchester Gazette.

“Rob joined us in September [from West Bergholt U16s] and has progressed really well, which is a great testament to the development programme here at the Colne working in partnership with Brightlingsea Regent.

“All three boys have featured in the first team this year, playing in the Ryman League — step four of the football pyramid.”

Photo: Colchester Gazette

TractorCam added 12:56 - Jan 25 Glad we've been very active in the non league market this window, there's plenty of talent and promise there.
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hoppy added 13:15 - Jan 25 Before anyone moans, I see this as a good thing - that we're looking to make the most of local scouting. I'm sure this is in tandem with trying to bring in main targets, not instead of...
6

Marcus added 13:23 - Jan 25 While the first team is languishing the youth set up seems to be improving. This is a good sign. We need to be scouting amateur and semi-pro teams and finding the best talent. There's a lot of risk involved, we'll sign players who just don't make the step up, but we'll also find some gems.
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Radlett_blue added 15:01 - Jan 25 "offered him a trial"? Now, if he turns down the trial, we really have hit rock bottom!
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Texaco73 added 18:55 - Jan 25 Beijing Guoan? Isn't this a bit of a random team to playing behind closed doors? Long way for them to come and play against trialists and fringe players... *shrug* How did that come about? Quite a rich club in Chinese super league apparently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Sinobo_Guoan_F.C.
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HARRY10 added 20:07 - Jan 25 "he youth set up seems to be improving." Given is pretty woeful performance, improvement is about the only way it could go. So much for ME's claim about it being a Cat 1 academy, in all but name
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stevelincsexile added 22:23 - Jan 25 Does this Chinese club have a wealthy owner who might want to invest in an English club?
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GiveusaWave added 22:34 - Jan 25 Beijing Guoan are a huge club in China, seems a bit random that we are playing them to be honest.
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