CREWE'S reputation for promoting youth players through the ranks has earned admirers through the Football League, and Bury boss David Flitcroft is the latest to add his name to the list.

The two clubs lock horns at Gresty Road today with both still searching for their first victories in League One this season.

But whatever happens on the pitch will take nothing away from the respect Flitcroft and the Bury board have for the academy structure and club policy put in place by previous manager Dario Gradi.

“As a football club they are an iconic model in the English game, especially when you look at the players they have produced and Dario Gradi’s consistent success in the club’s academy," Flitcroft told the Bury website.

“Dario is someone I have got an incredible admiration for, the way he has gone about his business and the way he has built the football club to produce talent.

“What he has built there is a fantastic football model for teams like ours to copy, but they are so far in front with the facilities, the coaching structure and the processes they have got in place.

“It is a club where if you have a choice between going to a Premier League side like Liverpool and Everton or Crewe, at times you are going to choose Crewe, because you know you’ll be around the First Team at a younger age.

“The Crewe model is a fantastic model and we have studied it to take away some of its unique points to implement here.”

Since taking overBury two years ago, chairman Stewart Day has put an emphasis on the club developing their own players for the first team to sell on for a profit, much like Crewe.

Flitcroft has put that idea into practice over the summer by signing six youth team players to professional contracts, and admits that they would love to get the club to where Crewe are in terms of their academy.

Crewe, however, have sometimes struggled to turn that model into success in the league, with the club only just avoiding relegation during the past couple of campaigns.

However, Flitcroft wants to mix success in the league with creating future stars.

“The club (Bury) has been in League One and the Championship before, but as a yo-yo club," he added.

"I want to be a manager that can help sustain football at this level, to give us a platform to go to another level.

“We have grown really quickly in the period the chairman’s been in and the time we’ve been in as a new management team, but now it’s about sustainability. It’s about building from a strong platform.”