Pemberton looking to future

10th May 2010

Sheffield United's new academy coach John Pemberton hopes to build on the success of his predecessors and unearth the next generation of future stars at Bramall Lane.

Pemberton, who spent three years as a player at the club in the early 1990s, recently replaced Ron Reid in charge of the Blades' youngsters and after spending over a decade in a similar capacity at Nottingham Forest, hopes to enhance the academy's reputation.

Pemberton said: "The biggest thing for the club was a commitment for a long while and I had that. It's important for the academy to be a support network for whatever the club needs if it's to produce players and I did that at Forest for 13 years.

"Initially it was producing players to sell to keep the club afloat, for example in the case of Jermaine Jenas who went to Newcastle for £5million. It brought pressure because I was developing players and trying to get them ready quickly for another reason."

"The recruitment area is massive and it's something I'm going to be looking at because we're competing with a host of clubs like Wednesday, Leeds, Barnsley and Forest so we need to be aggressive in that.

"I want United's academy to be known for producing youngsters, which it has done in the past because it has been very well-run by Ron Reid and Kevin Fogg and their coaches."