Former Huddersfield Town full-back Simon Trevitt believes the days are long gone when a glut of youngsters would progress through a club's Academy.

And the Dewsbury-born fans favourite, who came through the youth ranks at Town, also believes today's youngsters are often 'over-coached' in comparison with yesteryear.

Coming from a family of staunch Huddersfield Town supporters, Trevitt was offered apprentice terms at the club in May 1984 before becoming a full-time professional two years later at the tender age of 18.

Huddersfield Town's Play-Off winning team of 1995 reunion dinner at the John Smith's Stadium - Simon Trevitt is fourth from left on the back row.
Huddersfield Town's Play-Off winning team of 1995 reunion dinner at the John Smith's Stadium - Simon Trevitt is fourth from left on the back row.

The right-back went on to rack up more than 200 appearances for the club over a nine year period which also saw the player feature in Huddersfield Town’s historic Second Division Play-Off Final success in 1995.

But it's a situation the now 49-year-old believes will not happen again – either at Huddersfield Town or anywhere else across the country.

“It's a bit disappointing how the Academy is at the moment – there's not a lot of players coming through,” Simon Trevitt said.

“But my opinion is that generally all Academies are taking players too young - as 8-9 year olds they are taking a bit of their childhood away.

“They become too regimental in their approach – meaning there is no expression in the way they play and they are perhaps even being over-coached.

“At Huddersfield Town nobody seems to be coming through at the minute - and now being in the Premier League it is going to be even harder for any youngsters to break through.

“When I started out we were lucky because at the age of 17/18 there were three of us making our debuts in the first-team.

“Graham Mitchell, Paul Williams and myself - whereas now, you are lucky to get in a side at the age of 21 or 22. What happened with us is not going to happen these days."

Where does Simon Trevitt rank in comparison to Huddersfield Town's other modern-day right-backs? Have your say with our interactive poll .