Motherwell chief Alan Burrows says Steelmen will never abandon their youth development policy

Any parent will tell you that the cost of raising kids can be astronomical – and the same goes for football clubs attempting to rear their own talent.

In recent years, Livingston, Falkirk and Dumbarton have scrapped their youth academies as part of a belt-tightening process, preferring to sign free agents when they’re released by other clubs.

However, Motherwell chief executive, Alan Burrows, insists that they’ve taken the decision to adopt the opposite approach, claiming they’ll be better off in both the short and long term as a result.

Manager Stephen Robinson has used eight players who have come through the Fir Park ranks in his first team so far this season – Chris Cadden, Allan Campbell, Jake Hastie, Adam Livingstone, Barry Maguire, James Scott, Jamie Semple and Davie Turnbull.

And in the past few days, it was confirmed that Hastie will move to Rangers in the summer.

The Fir Park club expect to receive a development fee of £355,000 for the 20-year-old winger – who’s been their player for a decade – and that cash will be reinvested in the next batch of stars.

Burrows insists it’s the only way forward for his club.

“You think of Lanarkshire, and the number of international players who have come from here. It’s a real hotbed of footballers,” he said.

“That’s because it’s mainly a working-class region where we tend to play football more than other sports. plus it also has a high-population density.

“Two of the SFA’s eight elite clubs, when it comes to youth development – ourselves and Hamilton – are just three miles apart. Throw in Celtic and Rangers and you have half of them within a 10-mile radius.

“Most of the best Scottish players come from Lanarkshire or Glasgow, so it’s incumbent upon us to find our own stars.

“The fact we’re a club owned by its supporters also makes that essential because we don’t have many ways to generate cash, and one of the few we do have is to sell players we’ve brought through ourselves.

“That sounds quite corporate but, apart from cup runs like the two finals we reached last season, that’s our best bet when it comes to raising money.”

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Burrows doesn’t claim that Well are breaking new ground with this strategy.

“In fairness, most clubs are like us – Southampton operate exactly the same way but on a different scale,” admits the Fir Park chief.

“But it’s been very fruitful for us, in terms of the players currently in our first-team squad and the ones we’ve been able to sell on.

“You can go back to James McFadden, Stephen Pearson, Mark Reynolds, Lee McCulloch, David Clarkson, Paul Quinn, Stevie Hammell and Steven Saunders, all of whom have played for Scotland in the last 15 years.

“It’s now part of the DNA at this club that we rear, protect, promote and sell on players.”

“Up until about four years ago, we were doing really well by signing players from non-league clubs in England – guys like Louis Moult, Ben Heneghan and Marvin Johnson immediately spring to mind,” Burrows went on.

“However, the National League is now more affluent than it used to be and they can significantly outbid us for players.

“Plus the clubs we were selling them on to decided to cut out the middle man and go straight to the source.

“That’s sharpened our focus on our youth academy. It’s put a greater emphasis on the pathway between the Under-19 side and the first team.

“I’ve been working for the club for 11 years now. But I’m still a fan and nothing gives you more pride and satisfaction than seeing a kid come through the ranks to play for the senior side.

“We’ve also been fortunate that the likes of Cadden, Turnbull and Livingstone are also supporters of the club.

“Fans love the fact that those guys have that affinity with Motherwell – hence the ‘Alan Campbell – he’s one of our own’ song – and why that means so much.”