Tony Ashby believes selling a home-grown player to a bigger club will be the next “milestone moment” for their flourishing youth set-up.

But the U’s joint-academy manager has stressed they want their talented youngsters to become established first-team players before that happens.

Colchester’s academy has a blossoming reputation, with the likes of Alex Gilbey, Frankie Kent and Macauley Bonne now established in the senior squad.

And the performances of their various age groups within the Professional Development League set-up are also causing a stir.

Ashby says Colchester’s academy set-up is attracting plenty of attention within the game - and feels the next landmark will be to see one of their established young players move to a bigger stage.

Ashby said: “The incentive is to see one of our academy players play 100 games for the first team and become a solid first-team player and then see them move on for the right price and at the right time.

“I think that would be another milestone moment for the club and the academy, because it would show that we’re producing players that have the potential to play at a higher level than they currently are.”

Colchester’s academy sides enjoyed a significant time last weekend, beating Queens Park Rangers’ under-18 and under-16 sides 8-1 and 10-0 respectively.

With John McGreal’s under-21 side also impressing in Professional Development League Two this season, the U’s reputation for producing talent is growing.

Ashby said: “Everyone’s looking at our academy now - it’s incredible when you see the scout lists for not just the first team games but also our under-21 and under-18 fixtures.

“A lot of the work that we’ve been doing in the academy is starting to come to fruition and we have a good pathway of boys coming through.

“I think parents and children are looking at us first, because of the pathway that we can offer.

“Dillon Barnes is a good recent example - he was offered the chance to go to a Premier League club before he signed for us.

“That was big for us and he can see the opportunity that we offer.

“Our target is for 50 per cent of the squad to be academy players and we’re close to that.

“We’ve had a dramatic rise in academy players making it into our first team over the last two or three years.”

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