BRENTFORD CHIEF ROWAN BACKS FALKIRK REVAMP

FALKIRK’S decision to axe their youth academy in favour of adopting the Brentford blueprint has taken Scottish football by surprise. But the man behind the restructuring of the West London club insists the Bairns have made a shrewd move by pulling the plug on their star factory. In May 2016, Robert Rowan, head of football operations at Griffin Park, was faced with a similar decision. He scrapped Brentford’s youth set-up to focus on recruiting young players rejected by other club academies. The model has since been copied by Huddersfield and now Falkirk, who plan to plough all available resources into a promotion push. ‘We were spending around £2million per year on our academy but had one of the worst records for producing players,’ said Rowan, who previously worked at Celtic and the SFA, as well as speaking with Rangers about their recent director of football vacancy. ‘It wasn’t driven purely by finance, but we don’t have as much money as clubs around us. ‘If we had a good 13-year-old, he was free to move until he was 16. If we had a good 18 to 20-year-old, big clubs would just pay money to get him. We had to do something a little bit different.’ Rather than running an academy for players aged eight to 23, the club started a B-Team and staffed it with talents who had slipped through the net at other clubs. The aim was to create ‘the most effective pathway into the first team of all English clubs’. Rowan added: ‘The structure has only been running 18 months and we’ve already had seven first-team debuts. ‘We’ve had two players graduate as fulltime first-team squad members and that will double by the end of this season. ‘The culture is better at the club now, too. Instead of hundreds of people, we have 47 staff and about 40 players. ‘Everyone knows each other and the head coach knows the development programme for each player. ‘Our ultimate goal is promotion to the Premier League.’ Falkirk chair Margaret Lang and chief executive Craig Campbell have already met with Rowan, who wouldn’t be surprised if more clubs adopt Brentford’s blueprint. Rowan added: ‘The academy system is not the most efficient way to run a football club. It was clear that Margaret and Craig from Falkirk wanted what was best for their club — regardless of how big a decision it was. I wish them well.’ Meanwhile, the SFA have announced they will stage a showcase match for youngsters left without a club following Falkirk’s decision to withdraw funding from the Forth Valley Football Academy.