Middlesbrough future looks bright as Neil Warnock salutes academy

Chairman Steve Gibson has always been keen to promote local talent at Middlesbrough.

As a manager, Warnock has often been seen as a short-term solution but he sees long-term promise at Rockliffe.

“I’ve not seen a better academy in all my career,” said the much-travelled veteran. “This is head and shoulders above most others.

“You’ve got to look at your academy to produce players who can get into the first team now.

“I read recently Birmingham were thinking of packing it in and I can understand that because it’s not like in the past where you only needed one player, and if he was a star, you were going to get millions. Now it’s pathetic.

“You don’t really get the value you used to before the Premier League changed the rules so they could pinch everybody cheaply. You might get add-ins after internationals and (club) games and things like that but there’s not a lot of money.”

He does see reasons for optimism on Teesside, though.

“I do feel because of the geographical side of things up here, we might be able to keep some of these lads playing in the first team,” he said.

“I think most of these lads would love to play for Middlesbrough.

“Earlier this season we only had seven fit (senior) players for the bench and we were saying, ‘We won’t put any of the kids on, so there’s no point them being there.’ But then we said, “No, that’s being silly, really, we might as well let the lads who are closest come and have a look at what happens.’

“If they travel overnight and watch the games, they’re a part of it.”

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