BURNLEY’S sporting director Frank McParland expects some of the Clarets’ new crop of development squad signings to make the jump to the first-team, as Turf Moor chairman Mike Garlick revealed the club will provide specific investment in youth football.

The Clarets signed five players this summer who have gone straight into the development squad as part of a new strategy to improve the standard of young players at the club. Some of the under-21 squad have already stepped up to train with Sean Dyche’s senior side, and while McParland admits some will fall away, he does expect a few to make the grade at Turf Moor.

“We’ve spent relatively little money on the group up to now,” he said. “It’s not as if any of them are guaranteed.

“Once you start spending £1million on a 17-year-old he should be going straight into the first team.

“The 17/18-year-olds that we’ve signed could be slow burners.

“Hopefully one or two will get around the first team. I know the manager’s really happy with the ones who have gone and trained with them, so he thinks they’re of a really good level. So I’m just hoping we work really hard with them in the under-21s.

“Some of them will go out on loan, some of them will surprise us and may be knocking on the door for the first team, and some of them won’t be good enough. That’s normally what happens.”

This summer saw the arrival of Renny Smith from Arsenal, Dan Agyei from AFC Wimbledon, Luke Hendrie from Derby, Arlen Birch from Everton and Shrewsbury winger Josh Ginnelly.

And Turf Moor chairman Garlick revealed the club are using some of the Premier League cash to boost their development squad after admitting the progression from prospect to first team player at Burnley has not been good enough.

“The club has ring-fenced a sum of money for the next five years, so that every year we can add to the development squad and bring it up to the quality deemed necessary,” he said.

“The Premier League windfall has enabled us to plan for the future, rather than just fighting over scraps every year and wondering where the next penny is coming from.

“It is a definite benefit of our legacy of the Premier League season and it’s about quality, rather than quantity because with the development squad, we want to make sure that some of those players progress to the first team.

“If we are honest with ourselves, over the last 10 to 15 years not enough of that has happened.”

McParland played a big part in recruiting younger players when employed at Liverpool, and while he knows his primary role at Turf Moor is to help Dyche strengthen the first-team, he is pleased to playing a part in boosting the youth ranks as well.

“We’re investing in the second team, which I have always thought is the right thing to do,” he said.

“I did it at Liverpool where we signed players like Raheem Sterling. We bought him for £400,000, then they get £49million for him, which is good business. We brought Jordan Ibe in from Wycombe Wanderers for small money.

“We brought Sheyi Ojo who is now on loan at Wolves.

“I really think it’s important you invest in the younger players.

“If you take a player in at 15 and you pay £400,000 and he can play in our first team, that’s unbelievable.

“But at our club we’re going to look at 17, 18, 19-year-old players. We’re going to be working hard at that age group and they’ll be closer to the first team.

“When I was at other clubs they’d be even younger - 14/15. But that’s a long time away.

“I can assure the fans that we definitely want to get the ones who are really close to being in the first team.

“We’re not going to invest a lot of money in the real young ones but definitely in the one that are going to be close.”