MICHAEL Duff has urged Burnley’s young hopefuls to make first-team stars such as Tom Heaton and Sam Vokes their idols as they seek to emulate their success.

Duff has moved up from being in charge of the Under-18s to the Under-23s as he seeks to help the Clarets produce their own Academy talent in the coming years.

The former Turf defender has already spoken of how he believes the £10.6million Gawthorpe redevelopment will help those players in the youth and developments squads to learn from the senior professionals.

And Duff believes the Clarets’ next generation should be doing all they can to learn from Sean Dyche’s squad.

“They should be their idols. They should want to ask them questions and learn off them,” the 39-year-old said. “We’ve had Tom come in to speak to us and he’s been good in regards to that.

“It’s basically don’t be an idiot. They’re at an age where they’re going to make mistakes but as long as you learn from it they’re going to be fine.

“A lot of it is just common sense but sometimes they get lost in the world of being a footballer.”

Duff admits that life for a youngster coming through the ranks has changed in recent years, and keeping them focused on football and away from distractions is an essential part of the job.

He is determined to make enjoyment of the game part of his coaching mantra with the younger age groups.

“It comes back to wanting to be a footballer,” Duff explained.

“Look after the football, everything else comes with it. It’s a societal thing now, because you can become famous off the back of a TV programme and having no talent, and a lot of the youngsters want everything else, but forget they’re a footballer.

“It’s trying to teach them that. You go to a playground and you see seven and eight-year-old’s running round like lunatics loving football. It’s important we try and keep that and not let all the other distractions drag them down.

“They should be coming in and enjoying it, but you don’t see that sometimes.”

Duff added: “They have to live right, they’re learning with us. We expect them to eat the right things and drink the right things - again that’s all part of the education - and we want them to perform on a Saturday and do it again on a Monday and Tuesday.

“It can get hard work and people don’t understand that sometimes. They think because you’re a footballer you’re the luckiest bloke in the world but they have to make a lot of commitments and a lot of sacrifices, especially at that age.”