Rovers have announced an intake of nine first-year scholars for the 2018/19 season.

The club’s Academy continues to flourish with 11 players who have graduated through the club’s ranks having featured for the senior team last season.

While the first team achieved promotion back to the Championship, Damien Johnson’s Under-23s won the Premier League 2 Division Two title and promotion to the top flight.

The Under-18s reached the last eight of the FA Youth Cup, while there was further success at Under-14s level as they were crowned the Albert Phelan Cup Northern winners.

The latest Academy players to be offered new deals are: Flavien Boyomo, Luke Brennan, Sam Burns, James Connolly, Jordan Eastham, Daniel Pike, Jalil Saadi, Isaac Whitehall and Chanka Zimba.

The teenagers put pen-to-paper on their two-year scholarship contracts at the Academy’s annual end-of-season induction evening.

And Head of Academy Stuart Jones is pleased with the club’s pathway, having maintained their Category One status last summer despite the first-team having been relegated to League Two.

“I say to a lot of people that ultimately we’re about developing young players. That’s what we’re about.

“It’s not just about the Under-23s and Under-18s in terms of the quality of young players we have there, if you look right through the system we have got full-time training model that has some really good Under-14s, Under-13s, we have a couple of internationals in the system as well, an Under-15 who has been around the England team so I think right through the system we’ve got some really good talent.

“It’s really important that we continue to work to develop them and ultimately from a recruitment process we try and improve the quality of players we have here at the Academy.”

A number of the youngsters have already featured for Billy Barr’s Under-18s side, with Boyomo, Connolly and Whitehall all featuring in the FA Youth Cup run to the last eight.

The group will boost the number available to Barr, following the decision to release Matthew Campbell, Matthew Chan, Callum Dolan, Ben Donnelly-Blackburn, Frank Jones and Brad Lynch last month.

They are likely to take the places vacated by a number of the Under-18s group who have since signed professional deals. Dan Butterworth, Jack Evans, John Buckley and Jack Vale also signed their first professional contracts last season.

At Under-23s level, Rovers have been particularly proactive with contracts, meaning the majority of Johnson’s side, who are pushing for first-team honours, are tied down to long-term deals.

No player was released from that age group, with Lewis Mansell having been made an offer of re-engagement, while goalkeeper Charlie Albinson saw the option in his contract taken up.