Phil Appiah and Nathan Fairhurst won't be the only first year professionals at Deepdale next season, after former Burnley duo Dean Stott and Rob Turner were signed on to join a new 'development squad' containing the best of the Club's up-and-coming talent.

The highly-rated pair had been watched by a number of clubs throughout the duration of their two-year scholarships at Turf Moor which have just come to an end, so it was seen as something as a surprise when the Clarets didn't opt to take them on as professionals for 2008/09 and beyond.

Both attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Blackburn and had been long-time members of the Burnley Centre of Excellence before being granted scholarships two years ago. The pair both featured for the East Lancashire club in the Lancashire FA Youth Cup final, and have also turned out for the Lancashire School FA team.

Dean Ramsdale, PNE's head of youth development and a former member of Burnley's youth development programme, knows both lads well, and believes that they have a bright future as part of a new initiative to help the Club's young professionals and brightest scholars to step up to the levels required to be important members of the senior squad. He explained:

"I'm delighted that we've got in there before other clubs will have wanted to do, and offered them a pro contract. I know them both very well from my time at Burnley. I've known Rob for probably six or seven years, and I've known Dean for a little bit longer than that - I've always kept an eye on what's happened with their careers.

"I've watched them throughout their two year scholarship and I've taken a big interest in them, as I suppose you do with a number of clubs to see what they've got in the way of scholars and potential first year pros.

"Rob's a local Preston boy, and from talking to him the other day he told me that he's been a season ticket holder here for about ten years. He's an out and out centre forward.

"I've coached Dean for a while, and I had the pleasure of taking him to Germany numerous times when I was at Burnley so I know all about him. He can play a number of positions, including right-back, or he's equally as comfortable as a holding midfielder.

"I've spoken to the gaffer at length about them, as well as the chairman, Kevin Abbott, Billy Barr and Rob Kelly - I spoke to everyone about it and I was pushing to make the decision to sign these lads purely on a development basis. You look at what someone like Neal Trotman has achieved in a similar situation, and we're hoping that these two can go on and progress under our guidance.

"They're going to go into what we're calling a 'development squad' for next year where they'll feature in reserve games, while the gaffer will also be able to key an eye on them from a close viewpoint.

"The idea of the development squad is something that we've talked about with the gaffer, Rob, and Billy. Jamie and myself have been looking at it, and there's probably too big a gap between the scholars and the pros - we haven't got so many pros in that area in between.

"You're looking at people like Andy Murphy being in that situation, and we've been pushing for these two lads to come in as well because I think they'll cope with it very well. Of course there's Phil Appiah and Nathan Fairhurst who have come through our programme, and there's one or two of the lads who'll be second years next season that are doing very well at the moment.

"I think everybody's aware at how keen I am about some of the boys coming in as first years, and we'll be looking to get them involved in that squad as well."

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