Graham Allner hails Harriers academy

Kidderminster Harriers' longest-serving manager Graham Allner today backed the club's new academy to "pay dividends."

Harriers start their Football Conference Youth League season today, away at Kettering, after five games in the Midland Floodlit Youth League.

Their youth squad is comprised completely of talented teenagers cherry-picked in the summer for the new set-up, launched in conjunction with Stourbridge College.

Their combined goal is for their students to combine football with a range of courses at the college, ranging from sports development and coaching all the way through to gym instruction and apprenticeships.

Former Birmingham defender Jerry Gill is the club's full-time academy manager and Allner, who was first-team boss between 1983 and 1998, believes it could provide for the future at Aggborough.

Harriers made a fortune through finding and selling players when Allner was in charge, with the sale of Lee Hughes alone bringing in nearly £1million.

Albion paid for £200,000 the striker in 1997, a record fee for a non-league player, with a 15 per cent sell-on clause negotiatied by Allner netting a further £750,000, after Hughes joined Coventry for £5million in 2001.

And the 62-year-old believes the platform that built to kick on is ample proof the club's new academy is a worthwhile venture.

He said: "When you think we had Richard Forsyth, who we got £120,000 for, and Lee Hughes, who we had next to £1million for, it paid dividends.

"It wasn't just those two, we had Paul Jones and Steve Lilwall come through the reserve set-up, who we got good money for.

"It more than jusitifed itself, we went for quality rather than quanitity and I think it was one of the most important things that we did.

"We developed the whole of the club alongside the first-team and that was very important."

Allner lives less than 10 miles from Aggborough in Astley Burf, Stourport-on-Severn and is still discovering talent today, as an employee of the Scouting Network.