'I've been at Bury for two to three weeks now and it has been difficult, but enjoyable.  There's a lot of catching up to do and a lot of stuff to start from scratch with, and obviously with a couple of members of staff not being here as well you end up doing two or three jobs.  For the time being though, I've really enjoyed it plus the lads have worked hard and have been receptive to it.

This is a completely new set up, a clean slate and starting from scratch again.  Obviously there were no others members of staff here and it was literally starting from scratch with a totally new project, a totally new set up.  All I had was a bunch of players and that was it, to start again with.

I started at the top and worked my way down, with the older lads that have spent a lot of times with the under 16's through to the under 18's team, then we started to organise the rest of the lads from there.  The School of Excellence boys will start to come in from next week, so we are now moving onto them and making sure that we get them organised, plus the part time coaches as well.

We have 15 players within the youth team at the moment, two of them are goalkeepers but Christian Dibble is away at the moment on international duty with Wales Under 17's, plus two of the lads have both been used as subs in the first team friendlies against Huddersfield and Leeds United.  That's left me a little bit short in training but its good to see that the system is working and two of the boys are out there playing for the first team.

We are looking to maybe make another addition to the team, but it would have to be somebody at the right age because this is a two year scheme.  Its not just about football because there is the education side of the course as well.  There's a coaching qualification to be gained from this.  We've also got a couple of players in on trial at the moment so we are looking at making one more addition as a sixteen year old.

With us now moving under the Community Trust umbrella, we are starting with a blank piece of paper.  I've only just come in, Alan Moore has just come in a school of excellence manager and then there's Paul Weller who oversees the school of excellence and the youth department.  Paul is also relatively new to it, I am new to it and so is Alan.  It's a pilot scheme and we are the first club to run with this, even the Football League don't really know how this is going to work.  It's a matter of just keeping trying things and keeping testing things and see how we get on from there.

It's one massive team and Paul Weller is good, he leaves me to get on with it and leaves the football side to me.  If I need something then I have to go and ask him to it but he is good with that sort of stuff and good with organisation and the finances, but he pretty much leaves me to get on with the football side of things.  I make the football decisions and Paul makes the off the field decisions and its working quite well, it free's up my time.

I've got a good relationship with the manager and he's been receptive to my ideas and we have communicated very well on a daily basis.   He's pretty open as far as me going and knocking on his door and having a chat, giving him some opinions and obviously he gives his opinions back to me.  It's working pretty well and its going to have to because the first team squad is pretty small at the moment, hopefully some of the boys will get the opportunity and he will be coming and asking which ones its going to be.

He has had a big impact in what we are trying to do and luckily enough we both have the same philosophy in the game, we both want the game to be played in the same way which helps, so that means the players in my squad can hopefully step up into the reserves and then into the first team with the same ideas.  He does have input obviously because he's the manager of the whole football department.  He oversees everything so its important that what I am doing fits in with the game plan that he's got.

Technically the lads haven't got a problem.  Physically they still have a long way to go.  Some of the boys are still only 15 and they only left school three or four weeks ago.  Its difficult sometimes to not judge them as the finished article, which is what long term player development is about.  We have to look at them and say where do we want them to be in two years time.  We have a longer plan of being able to get these players into the first team.  Some of them in the next year or 18 months.  You have to take your time with one or two of them, some mature quicker than others and we will certainly see over the next 18 months how one or two of them develop.

Some of these kids were in a classroom at school three weeks ago, now its 100% football six days a week.  Some of them are having problems adapting physically.  We've had three days off in the last three weeks.  To train six days in the row is difficult, sometimes in the heat.  Sometimes we work on physical training before we actually get the footballs out.  They are starting to feel it a little bit now, they are starting to get a little bit jaded.  We have a couple of friendly games coming up in the next week or so, which again will give me more of an idea of where we are.  Mentally as well, they are fresh out of school and that's all they know, so it is going to take time to being used to the day to day life as a future professional footballer.'

The remainder of Richie Barker's interview will be live over the weekend