Holland is confident of making Stoke's academy a success

Stoke academy manager Steve Holland said he is delighted the club are investing money in their youth set-up.

Building work on a new £6.5m training complex is due to be started in July and it is expected to be completed by the summer of 2010.

Holland told BBC Radio Stoke: "The club are committed to investing more money into the academy and that is needed, you can't compete just on enthusiasm."

The former Crewe boss took over his new role at Stoke in March.

Holland added: "In the few weeks that I've been here it's clear that everybody's responding to the extra hope and everyone wants to be part of something that's successful.

"In my 18 years at Crewe I'd always felt I had a significant part to play in whatever I was involved with, that was part of the attraction here and it's a bigger pond of course but I'm still going to have a significant role in the future of it."

During his 18-year spell at Crewe, Holland helped with the development of a number of players that brought in millions of pounds in transfer fees, including Dean Ashton who left for Norwich for £3m in 2006 before moving on to West Ham.

Holland has been given total control of re-shaping the Potters youth set-up and one of his first jobs is to bring in extra coaching staff and scouts.

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