CLARETS boss Stan Ternent has admitted it may be time to scrap the youth system at Turf Moor in order to use resources more effectively.

Speaking at the club's Annual General Meeting he admitted: "In my view it will be better to have one team of 20 players and then trawl the academies and get young players in at 18 and 19.

"At the moment the failure rate at Burnley Football Club is too high. We need to have academy status but the minimum charge to set one up and get Gawthorpe right is somewhere in the region of £3-4million."

The manager was responding to a question from the floor that wondered where the youth scheme was going and why Paul Weller, 28 next birthday, is the last player to have come through the ranks and made his mark in the first team.

Ternent conceded: "The youth scheme is a very complicated and long winded item of discussion and it is a subject close to my heart.

"The problem is that Burnley Football Club can't attract the best young players. Forty years ago, 35 years ago the club would go out and get the best because Burnley was in the top flight, in the European Cup, champions of England.

"The situation now is that young players want to play for Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal.

"Clubs like Sunderland have just spent £12million on their academy, all the other clubs have them while we, at this moment in time, can't.

"It is a case of finance and wages. Our rivals Blackburn Rovers can take a kid and offer him an apprenticeship and long term deal on wages some of my first team aren't on.

"That's why we just can't attract the best kids.

"Even if we did get a Dave Thomas or a Leighton James, whichever youngster was your favourite, we would not have them two minutes before another club came in, took him and just pay the compensation."

Currently the club receives a grant of £138,000 from Sport England and the Premiership, a figure the club has to match.

But that comes with conditions and Ternent complained: "To me, football is a seven days a week job.

"The kids are in college all Monday and most of Thursday. Saturday they play and Sunday they have off so that leaves three days.

"You can't do much on Friday because of the game on Saturday so that leaves two days, Tuesday and Wednesday to be a professional footballer.

"The board and the chairman understand where I am coming from. We are just not producing kids.

"It is hard for people to take because Burnley was always known for bringing on their own players. I was one of them, I was part of it.

"In the 60s it was all home grown and I remember when we signed Frank Casper it was a rare thing.

"Since then the club has gone down the divisions and the best kids want to go to the Premiership.

"It is a real minefield and already in football there are hundreds of very good players unemployed."

Due to the limited playing resources at Turf Moor this season, Ternent has been forced to name youngsters like Matty O'Neill, Andrew Waine and Mark Rasmussen on the bench this season.

It is clear that the future of the youth scheme and centre of excellence at the club is going to be open to a debate that Ternent wants to play a full part in.