Dundee want to continue their success at developing homegrown talent but there is an increasing hazard.
English clubs “sniffing around” youth teams is a major hurdle for the club to overcome.
Recent success stories have seen the likes of Lyall Cameron, Josh Mulligan and Fin Robertson play over 100 times for the first team.
The hope is another talented batch is on the way, too.
However, two with first-team credentials on the horizon were whisked away before playing a single minute for the club’s senior side.
Lochhead and Graham
Sixteen-year-old central defender Seb Lochhead did feature in pre-season friendlies last summer, joining the first team on their pre-season training camp in Poland.
He’d be on the bench in the Premier Sports Cup and early Premiership contests.
But that was as close as he came – Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers came calling and he headed south at the end of August.
Scotland youth international Ally Graham is a little younger than Lochhead but both played a part in Dundee’s U/18 side reaching the Scottish Youth Cup Final in the early rounds.
Graham drew interest from a number of clubs, training with Arsenal, Southampton and Newcastle before Nottingham Forest won the race for his signature.
It’s understood both earned Dundee £300,000 fees with add-ons if future milestones are met.
While the Dark Blues brought in some cash for these young players, the ideal situation would see players help the first team before moving on for a bigger fee.
With the finances on offer from big clubs down south, though, that is easier said than done.
‘Sniffing’ scouts
“We obviously sold Alastair Graham to Nottingham Forest, we sold Sebastian Lochhead to Wolves and they were the next ones coming through,” Dundee’s head of academy Stephen Wright exclusively told Courier Sport.
“The difficulty can be, I suppose it is a bit of a luxury as well, that the more good players you produce through your academy, the more others start sniffing around.
“Because of the way Brexit’s happened, Scotland is a good place for English clubs to come up and take the best young talent.
“As a club, we have to try and do our best to keep these young players at Dundee and give them games.
“Give them 100 games like Lyall Cameron before he then goes to Rangers.
“But there’ll be instances where money’s good and these boys have gone.
“Alastair and Sebastian, they started with Kevin Garrick way down at eight or nine years old.
“But for me, I look at that as great for them, great for their family, getting out to play in England.
“Equally, Lyall played 100 games, Josh played 100 games, Finlay as well.
‘More difficult’
“We can’t control everything, but we can control as much as we can with the young players and how much training they get and make sure they get looked after.
“There are loads of scouts now coming to Scottish games because it’s easier for them to come here. It’s harder for them to get players from Europe.
“And there’s good players in Scotland. You see that in the amount of players that have gone down to England already from different clubs.
“Again, you can’t control that. If big clubs come in, it’s sometimes difficult if they’re paying money.
“They’re coming for younger and younger players, which becomes more difficult.
“But we’ll keep working.
“It’s important the club gets the compensation that they’re due with all the work that goes in for them over the years.”
Lyall Cameron’s exit for Rangers on freedom of contract will earn Dundee compensation because he is under 23.
The same will happen with Josh Mulligan if his expected exit goes through this summer.
For more on Dundee’s Academy, check out our in-depth look at their setup.
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