Stoke City chief Tony Scholes is confident they can attract the best local talent.

It still burns Stoke they lost James Wilson as a teen to Manchester United.

Scholes said: "I make no excuses and no apologies and certainly don't worry if we are attracting players at the expense of other clubs. I worry more if we are losing players to a Man City or Man Utd that I think should be coming to Stoke.

"Our job is to make the Stoke Academy the best that I possibly can and that is so we can develop potential players for our first team – and if not our first team, then the first teams of other clubs. The first priority is local lads, making sure we give local lads the opportunity to come through, but also to supplement those with acquisitions as well, specifically acquisitions at certain ages to improve the overall quality of what we've got.

"We've invested a lot of time and money in the Academy. It's lagged behind the first team and arguably behind other clubs' Academies but now we are starting to see real tangible signs of the progress we are making. If you can bring a young local lad all the way through there is no better day."