Reaction to the news that Huddersfield Town have taken the decision to scale back their academy has been underlined with an overwhelming sense of shame and disappointment. While the club have made it abundantly clear why the decision has been made, and their reasons for doing so, there is a feeling in football that the purest way to succeed is to take local talent and build your club around the development and success of your own. A romantic take, it's not one that been born out much in reality for Town of late, because had it been, there's no way they'd have gone down the path they have.

In truth, what Town are doing can be seen as a positive. Not getting enough out of their old academy compared to what they were putting in, it takes a certain amount of foresight and bravery to abandon established methods and change tact, and that's not all too dissimilar to the leap of faith made when David Wagner first joined the club. There's no hiding from the obvious loss it is to the families and coaches who've lost a place to play as a result, but for the sake of a short term upheaval, the football club could prosper in the long term, and that should be the bigger picture.

Ryan Schofield

We've seen players from Huddersfield pass the club by, with Frazier Campbell and Cameron Jerome recent examples. For those to graduate through the academy successfully and make an impression at the highest level with any sort of regularity, only Jon Stead and Andy Booth come to mind in a modern context. Of those who've broken in to the side and helped Huddersfield in a tangible manner before being sold on, there's just Jack Hunt and Alex Smithies to boast. Yet, having been promoted, two players recruited in the manner Town are going to concentrate on more regularly going forwards - Tommy Smith and Philip Billing - are still major members of the squad, and the sort of examples Huddersfield are looking to consistently recreate.

The main case study to look at in this area is Brentford, who made a similar call with their academy last year after facing a similar set of hurdles. Although there's been some movement at Glasgow Rangers to downsize in what they do as well, the west London club remain the most radical example of structuring youth football, as they completely shut down what had been a Category Two operation since 2011, with significant investment made to get the most out of it. In the place of their academy, the club have introduced a sole 'B' team, who focus on redeveloping players dropped by larger clubs, and bringing in foreign talent identified by their scouting network.

Huddersfield Town 1st team squad training at PPG Canalside.

Surrounded by clubs like QPR, Fulham and Chelsea, with Tottenham, West Ham and Arsenal hardly that far away either, Brentford's catchment area became increasingly small, with the more established clubs able to offer more to what were deemed to be the biggest prospects, leaving the club with little to no chance of recruiting the level of talent required to succeed. Towards the end of their academy, two shining lights were actually taken by Manchester City and Manchester United, with the club poorly compensated in return, the Elite Player Performance Plan making it increasingly difficult to keep that type of player on their books. The dilemma and frustration on their behalf is clear - what is the benefit of pouring club resources in to nurturing footballers if they're never going to make it through to the first team anyway?

While staff at the academy were under the impression that a crop of players of the right level were on the verge of coming through and disappointed by the timing of the change, the club were spending around £2m per season keeping up that standard of operation, having previously upgraded from a centre of excellence. Another issue, and one that chimes true for Huddersfield in a similar manner, is that the first team improved at a rate that the rest of the club simply couldn't keep pace with. While one season they may have been aiming to bring through players able to help in a League One campaign, the next they were involved in a Championship promotion battle, so there are certain standards and expectations that are difficult to manoeuvre alongside.

Jon Stead in action for Town

In their new set up, the B side works in tandem with the first team, with at least two members of the side training with the senior squad per session. Able to mirror what the head coach is doing with his squad, the club are able to recruit with a central identity and playing style in mind, cherry picking certain types of players and talent, rather than just absorbing everything they can from the immediate vicinity. Reallocating some funds into scouting has allowed the club to concentrate on players who they feel are likely to make the step up to first team duty, without worrying about the sustainability of that investment, having not carried them through since primary school age. As a way of safeguarding the club from being robbed of their talent, it's highly effective.

There is little separation of the infrastructures of the B team and first team, too, which is different to how some clubs behave with their top tier talent. By giving what is essentially a reserve side a clear path to the position they want to be in, Brentford are encouraging competition, which is something we're already aware that Huddersfield are interested in aping. Their standard of opposition, too, whilst having been previously insufficient, is now of the highest standard it can be. Staging regular friendly matches behind closed doors of their B side and the best academy sides in the country, their up-and-coming talent isn't just training with a better standard of player, but playing against them, too.

Tommy Smith of Hudersfield Town shoots Premier League Football Huddersfield Town v Leicester City 16/09/17 (Pic by Graham Crowther) Football Images are covered by DataCo licence agreements. For Editorial Use Only No Free Use permitted.

While there's no such thing as a perfect plan, it's clear that the position Huddersfield had found themselves in that the academy wasn't producing the types of results they wanted from it, and while Premier League status has injected some liquid assets in to the club, it would have remained a drain on resources had it not been addressed. In a position of strength, now is as good a time as any to make these sorts of decision, while there's no real reliance on players coming through. In the future, should the club be in a position where buying players in the market is no longer the primary method of recruitment, this decision could spark a change in the academy that allows them to dip in to that talent pool more regularly, which would be an immense benefit to all involved.

If the club are guilty of anything, it is attempting to future-proof their current success and extend this current momentum for as long as possible. Dean Hoyle is a man we're aware only acts in the interests of the club, and this is yet another sign of that, despite initial disappointment. Only time will tell if the decision made was correct or not, but their intentions can't be doubted, especially with a club like Brentford to point to as an example of why such a decision can be made for the better.

You can follow Raj Bains on Twitter over on @BainsXIII , and his Huddersfield Town book Underdog is being published later in 2017. It is available to order now, with the opportunity to have the name of your choice printed in a fans list at the back of the book. Please visit www.gnbooks.co.uk or call 01274 735056.