Nurturing future stars has been crucial to the survival of clubs like Motherwell
THE pits may be long gone but Lanarkshire continues to have a rich seam of footballing talent to mine. Motherwell Football Club could not have predicted it but the latest young kids off the renowned Fir Park conveyor belt may just have saved them from real peril during the global pandemic. Selling striker James Scott to Hull City for £1.5million in January 2020, two months before Covid-19 locked down the world for the first time, was a timely windfall for the Steelmen. When David Turnbull’s move to Celtic was completed in August 2020 — in a deal that could be worth a club record £3.25m — Motherwell were well shielded from the financial pressures of the coronavirus. And no matter the hardships that have accompanied Covid, Motherwell remain fully committed to grassroots football and their academy. ‘I don’t think it would be wrong of me to say that in the absence of the sales of James Scott and David Turnbull, this club could could have been seriously struggling,’ Motherwell chief executive Alan Burrows (right) told Sportsmail.
‘There is no doubt about it. It was a huge lifeline for us. ‘But all it did was re-emphasise to us — if indeed it ever needed re-emphasised — how important youth football and academy football is to this club. ‘We will continue to be committed to our academy. In recent years we’ve had Allan Campbell, Jake Hastie, David Turnbull, Chris Cadden, James Scott — a real batch of strong, homegrown players come through the system. ‘We can’t produce players of that quality every year. That’s just not realistic. But when I look at some of the academy kids just now below the level of the first team, I’m extremely excited at the talent we have. ‘If we can get some of the guys who are 14 and 15 just now into the first team over the next four to five years, the future for them — and the club — is looking bright.’ Scott and Turnbull were merely the latest products of a system that over the past 20 years has also produced players including James McFadden, David Clarkson, Stephen Pearson and Steven Hammell. Burrows points to the area’s rich history of full Scotland internationals as a reason his club would be foolish to ever depart from their commitment to finding and developing the stars on their doorstep. ‘Lanarkshire is a hotbed of talented footballers,’ said Burrows. ‘Think of some of the players who have come from this part of the world. ‘You think of Ally McCoist, Gary McAllister, Paul McStay, Billy McNeill — not all from Motherwell but they are from this area. ‘It would be almost like sitting on an oil field and not digging up the oil or having a goldmine on your land and not digging up any gold. ‘If this football club, or Hamilton across the river, were to start turning their back on youth football, it would be a decision that would not make much sense given the talent pool that sits within this area. ‘So we will continue to keep investing in the academy. We never downgraded the academy during Covid and we are investing in improvements. ‘It’s hugely important to us but it’s also important to us to have a good relationship with grassroots and the local community teams around about us. ‘If you look through our history, the players we have brought through tend to have come through locally, then come into our system at around 11 or 12 years old. ‘There is room for that development element locally where teams have boys enjoying their football and having fun, and then they come into our programme at 11 or 12 and hopefully make their way through to the first team and make a career in the professional game. ‘David Turnbull played for a local club in Wishaw before he came to us. That shows there’s a place for everyone in the chain.’