Town U18s coach Russell Osman says he expects to see a couple of academy players progress into Paul Jewell’s first team next season. Already 17-year-old left-back Joe Whight has been on the bench on three occasions, having been offered a two-year professional deal.

Osman said: “We’ve got one or two lined-up for next year, hopefully. It’s all dependent on how they continue to progress with their training. We’re also very excited about one or two of the new intake that will come on board full-time in the summer.

“If we can make sure that they can get a good pre-season into them without picking up any injuries, it could be a very exciting time.

“It would be nice to think Joe Whight would make his debut, but there are others queued up more or less alongside Joe just waiting to get their opportunity with the first team manager.”

Another defender Callum Bennett, a right-back or centre-half, was recently mentioned in despatches by Jewell and could also be amongst those making the breakthrough next year.

Osman says several members of his side have joined in with the senior players at Playford Road, a move which he says was important to the academy’s latest graduate's progress: “They’ve had that opportunity in training, like Josh Carson had and it was more how he performed on the training field rather than in games for the U18s which was the basis for the manager putting him in the first team squad.

Joe Whight

“He saw him as a very good footballer in training sessions as well as seeing him a couple of times in the youth team. Whether it was his attitude to training, the ability he showed, his aptitude or the effort he put in, he was rewarded with an opportunity to move into the first team squad.

“That’s what the manager wants - people who show a lot of passion, a lot of endeavour and the desire about them to go that extra five yards to make things happen.

“And we need people that have all got the same belief that this club belongs in the top flight. It’s going to be a lot of work to get there, but you have to have people who believe in what’s going on and who want it as badly as the next person.”

Osman came through the ranks at Portman Road under Sir Bobby Robson, playing in the side which won the 1975 FA Youth Cup, and is a firm believer in Town developing young talent: “This club has always had a strong youth policy. It makes the manager’s job a little bit easier if he knows that we’ve got good youngsters coming up from underneath. At the moment, we feel we’ve got one or two coming through.

“But we’ve then got to look to next year and the year after that and the year after that. It’s an ongoing job.”

It seems Jewell and his staff take a similar view: “The beauty of it all at the moment is that we’ve got a manager who is extremely interested in how the academy and the youth team boys are doing.

“Not just Paul, but also Chris Hutchings and Sean McCarthy will come and watch the youth team play their home games regularly before home first team fixtures.

"And they’ll also watch the younger kids play on a Sunday morning, even down to the U10s, U12s and U14s. It’s not paying lip service to the parents that are there, they are genuinely interested in which kids are playing well, which ones are looking good prospects. They want to know about everything that’s going on.”

The 52-year-old former central defender took on his new role in February and is very much enjoying life having returned to where he spent his first 10 years in football: “I love it, it’s nice to be back at the club where it started for me back in 1975.

"It’s nice working at the academy, we’ve got good players to work with, good facilities to train on and it’s just a good club and a very good place to be with a lot of good people around.”

Osman photo: ITFC

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images

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