Shrewsbury's scouting network rivals England's biggest clubs insists David Longwell

Longwell, who is also first-team coach under manager Steve Cotterill, says Salop now have a host of successful youth teams.

And he insist that bodes well for the future with the club having improved their scouting network across Shropshire, Cheshire and the West Midlands.

“What we’ve tried to do is make sure we get the very best talent in Shrewsbury – that’s always got to be our base,” Longwell said.

“We’ve done that. But as you progress up the age levels we’ve got to open those paths. Birmingham is only 50 minutes, Wolverhampton is only 40 minutes, and Telford is 15 or 20 minutes, it’s so important in those areas we’ve created a pathway for children to come in from different areas to play in our academy.

“Gary Wharton, who is my head of recruitment, does a wonderful job. Another statement from our club is that when I first came in he was only part-time, we made him full-time. His job is to bring players in from under-8s all the way to under-18s and under-19s, which is a massive job.

“We’ve created links with grassroots clubs, different coaches in those areas, to try to find the talent – Shrewsbury, Telford, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Chester, to try to open up those areas.

“We’ve really built that up. Our under-14s went to an open tournament this season and beat teams like Man United, that gives you an indication of how far we’ve come. We won the tournament.

“We had another tournament in Easter, the under-11s came second from 10 teams and they were all Premier League teams.

“It tells you how much work has been done and how strong the teams have become because we think we’ve improved the talent so much.

“That can only be positive long-term, the more we improve, the higher level of talent we can produce.”