MICHAEL Duff is determined to help Burnley’s academy system bring through more first team players after admitting the club haven’t produced enough in his dozen years at Turf Moor.

The 38-year-old is moving into a coaching role with the club’s Under-18s after hanging up his boots, and he is hoping to have an influence on the potential Clarets of the future on the Gawthorpe training pitches.

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Duff remembered the influence of coaches including John Trollope and Steve Cotterill when he was a teenager at Cheltenham, with Cotterill then responsible for bringing him to Burnley in the summer of 2004, and hopes to have a similar impact on the potential young stars at the club.

“It’s common knowledge we’ve not produced enough home-grown players,” said Duff.

“In the 12 years I’ve been here there’s only been Chris McCann and Kyle Lafferty in the first couple of years, then other than that there’s only been Jay (Rodriguez) who has had any kind of lasting effect on the first team.

“The club are aware of it and it’s something I’ll be working hard to change.

“I remember my youth team manager now, John Trollope, who had a massive impact on me, and Cotts as well who got hold of me at 17.

“The things he put in to me at that age I still value now and think are important now.

“If I can have that effect on young players coming through, if they work hard I’ve got the knowledge to help them.”

“I’ve played a lot of games and I’ll be taking care of 16-year-old lads who were four years old when I joined the club. Hopefully they can look up and see. Then the experiences that I’ve had in the game, I’m hoping I can help affect their careers.”

Duff is aware he will need patience working with the Clarets youngsters.

“I’m not walking in there expecting them to be first team players, they wouldn’t be with me if they were at that level,” he said.

“They’re 16-year-old lads so they’re going to make mistakes, you have to make mistakes because you don’t learn otherwise, and I’m sure they will make mistakes off the pitch as well because it’s that time of life when it happens. As long as they learn from it and we can guide them and tell me them how hard it is to be a professional footballer then that’s good.

“That’s the other side to being a footballer, the discipline that people don’t see, looking at what you’re eating and not having fast food every 10 minutes and checking your body fats, and Christmas day, and at that age they’re mates will be out drinking, but they can’t do that. It’s hard because at that age you’re heavily influenced by your peers, but that’s hopefully something we can impact on them.”

While Duff is keen to work his way up to a top job at some point in the future, he knows he has a learning curve to go through before he reaches that stage.

“It’s something that I want to get into eventually but I want to go away and learn,” he said. “I’ve played for the last 20 years so that’s all I’ve known. I wouldn’t jump into any sort of job.

“I want to go away, learn, develop my own style and philosophy and eventually stick my head above the parapet and see what happens. It’s similar to my playing career really - I’ll work my way up and learn the ropes.

“It’s hard to jump in at the deep end because chairmen can be so trigger happy now. You’re going to make mistakes because it’s a new career.

“Ultimately I’m inexperienced as a manager so because I’ve been a good player doesn’t mean I’m going to be a good manager. I need to go away and learn other aspects of the game.”