Carlisle United's Mark Birch on need to produce more stars to follow Dean Henderson and Jarrad Branthwaite

That is the view of Mark Birch, the man in charge of their youth team, who says the Blues must look forward, and grip the challenge of producing their next stars, rather than bask in the satisfaction of a couple of major success stories.

“They’re the players who give you publicity and limelight, but you can’t stop there,” Birch says. “You can’t keep using their names forever. It’s got to be a conveyor belt of these young lads.

“We’re not going to sell a player for the money they went for every time, but can we get them into the first team, and can we create players that are going to play 2-300 games for Carlisle United in the future? That’s got to be the plan as well - to keep local players around what we’re doing.”

The likes of Manchester United’s Henderson, Everton’s Branthwaite and other recent departures like Leeds’ Liam McCarron and Josh Galloway are obvious examples of where a bright upbringing at Brunton Park can take a young player.

Particularly with the former two (and other former Blues academy prospects like Manchester City’s James Trafford), there is obvious inspiration for the current Carlisle crop.

Yet United must also try to retain its talent, as well as sell it. It must be a good, nurturing home for the best of what Cumbria has. More than anything, it needs to present itself as a place where talent will get its head, and not get lost in one of the huge academies higher up in football.

“With us, if you want to be a professional footballer, a club like this and this size is a good route to go through,” Birch says. “We’re seeing more players starting at a lower level, going out, getting first team football as early as possible and building a career.

“Some people want to go into the big clubs too soon, and then you just become a number.

Mark Birch (photo: Louise Porter)

“Clubs like this, if you dedicate yourself to it – and you’ve got to have that natural ability as well – you’re going to have a good chance of playing professional football.

“It’s not always that smooth but this is a good size club to come and give it a good shot, learn your trade and if you can do well, you can kick on and get your rewards.”

Birch, now lead professional development coach which puts him in charge of the Under-18s at United, accepts the Blues must be at their best in order to pinpoint Cumbria’s top talent. A new player is emerging on the county scene given Barrow’s plans to launch a category four academy.

That will only cover players from 16 upwards, while United’s category three set-up caters for much younger boys. But still: Birch concedes Carlisle cannot ignore another professional club spreading its net in their county.

“What we’ve got to do, then, is rise to another team,” he says. “It’s going to be competitive for the best players, but we’ve got to make sure we’re the best we can possibly be so we’ve got the best system, so the better players want to come to us, so we’re the first choice of parents and kids.

“We can’t just live off us being Carlisle United. That process has to be in place. I think it’s a good thing that now we’ve got competition in the area for the players, so now we have to up our game and be the very best we can be.

“We have to be active to make sure we’ve got all the best players in the region as young as possible. The older they do go through, the catchment area does open up, so the big clubs can come sniffing and grabbing them. But within the first couple of years we’ve got to really attach those players to the club and try and keep them as long as possible, and let them know if they stay as long as possible here, and we can help them develop as people and footballers, there’s a pathway for young players at this club.”

Birch highlights the benefit of the “affinity” young players like Branthwaite and current first-team prospects like Taylor Charters and Josh Dixon have had with Carlisle, having been part of the academy set-up from an early age.

“They knew the expectations of the club, so when they came in on a full-time basis they knew everything about it – they knew the staff, and the transition was smooth,” he says. “There were no new faces, they could bed into first team football, or as close as they can.”

Next in line, United hope, are current Under-18 players such as striker Sam Fishburn and goalkeepers Gabriel Breeze and Scott Simons. They will be part of Birch’s youth side this coming campaign, but will also hopefully catch first team head coach Chris Beech’s eye.

“They’ve had a good first year [in the Under-18s] but they have to kick on again – they can’t sit on the success they had last year,” Birch says.

“It’s our job as coaches to say well done, you’ve done ok, people around the club know your name, but how do you go to the next level?

“We can help them along that way but it’s got to come from within as well. One thing we can’t change is their desire, their personality. We can make them hungrier by dangling the carrot in front of them but it’s up to them to grab it now.”

Those second-year youth players must also assume extra responsibility, Birch says. “Everybody will have heard about Sam because he was the one scoring the goals and Gabe has been in and around the bench, and the other keeper, Scott, has been in and around it too, and the majority of them have trained with the first team.

“That gives them a taste of what is expected of them and it’s up to them to pass that knowledge onto the first years.”

Turning a gifted teenager into a hardened senior player is the ultimate challenge. Birch says: “Kids have to learn how to win when they get to Under-18 level.

“If you look at the academy system, the one downside is that there’s nothing to play for. These kids go from Under-9 to Under-16 without playing in a league; they don’t see a league table and they aren’t playing for points. It’s all about development, then all of a sudden they come into Under-18 football and they’re 1-0 up in the first match of the season with three points on the line and they have to learn how to handle that very quickly.

“There were times at the start of last season where our lads didn’t really adjust to that. When they did, they started looking at the league table and how the other teams have got on, which is when we started kicking on a bit because it brings out that competitive side.

“In the academy system, they aren’t put in the pressurised situations where they have to think about how they feel if they go 1-0 down after five minutes in an important match.”

Ideally that know-how comes, and Birch suddenly finds holes in his team to fill. “We’ll happily lose players if it’s for the first team,” he says. “If the manager and Gav [Skelton] come to us at 9am and ask for players for first team training, they can have as many as they want because it’s about developing those lads, it isn’t about us winning the league or whatever.

“We want to do well and educate them, but the end goal is to produce players for the first team.”