JENKINS ON CLUB’S CATEGORY ONE ACADEMY AIMS

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Director of Football Development plots timeline going forwards

2024-11-13T15:00:00.000Z

JENKINS ON CLUB’S CATEGORY ONE ACADEMY AIMS

Director of Football Development plots timeline going forwards

2024-11-13T15:00:00.000Z

CHRIS CASPER NAMED AS NEW ACADEMY BOSS - Image 2

Paul Jenkins believes the appointment of Chris Casper is an important step in the Academy’s journey towards gaining Category One status.

Casper, who has a lifelong affinity with the Club, was named Academy Manager on Monday after an extensive recruitment process.

“It’s a good day for us at the football club”, said Jenkins, Burnley’s Director of Football Development.

“Chris was an outstanding candidate with many years of experience at this level and has spent well over ten years at the Premier League as a club support manager.

“One of the main qualities in that role is that you get to experience good practice at other football clubs, independently, which is important.

“He also had success at Salford. He was pivotal in developing young players and their football strategy. So, coupled with his roots at this football club, he is the ideal fit.”

Casper’s son, Charlie, is learning his trade with the Clarets as a goalkeeper, and Jenkins explained why he thinks that is also beneficial to his new role.

“It’s really important to have those discussions about how parents see our football club and academy, and Chris is a nice sounding block to lean on in terms of that.

“Where changes need to be made from a parental point of view, Chris will be able to understand and help with that.”

Burnley’s academy currently holds category two status, and because of that, it competes in the Professional Development League.

Should it progress to being category one, the club’s academy would also compete in a more comprehensive and challenging games programme against some of the best young talent playing in England.

JENKINS ON CLUB’S CATEGORY ONE ACADEMY AIMS - Image 1

Explaining how the system works, Jenkins continued: “The academy system is based on categorisation, with each club essentially having a ‘label’ put above its door.

“That starts at category four and goes up to category one, which is the top status.

“We believe that anybody who walks through the doors at the training ground will know that we have category one facilities already.

“Our staffing structure meets those criteria, and we believe our processes are category one level too.

“The next stage is to be audited, and improving our status will allow our players to experience a more challenging games programme against the elite teams in the country.

“The knock on effect of that is that it helps with our recruitment. We want to attract the best players, not only locally and regionally, but nationally and ultimately internationally too.”

Part of Paul’s role is to oversee player development throughout the club, with a careful eye across the stars of tomorrow, who can ultimately benefit the first team in the long run.

“Our biggest goal, as it is for every club, is to produce players that play in our first team,” Jenkins added.

“That might come across as a harsh statement, but the money the ownership group invests into the academy means that we want a return on that investment.

“For me, that return is players who have been involved in our system walking out at Turf Moor as a Burnley player.”