Sheffield Wednesday: Owls' academy and training ground facilities will only get better, says Carlos Carvalhal

Carvalhal has fielded several homegrown players since taking charge of Wednesday, including Joe Wildsmith, Cameron Dawson, Jack Stobbs and George Hirst.

“We have improved the academy,” stated Carvalhal. “We have moved a lot of things.

“Things are much better this season so far compared to last season.

“We want to develop the players in the academy and we believe that some of them in the future can play for the first-team and will be in the squad.

“Some days they train with us. We know them very well and we believe in the short-medium time we will have more players from the academy in the first-team.”

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In recent months, the Owls have upgraded their two pitches at the club’s Middlewood Road base.

Carvalhal said: “We have improved the quality of the pitches. They are very good quality but we only have two.

“Sometimes when we look at other facilities we have seen 12, 15 or 20 pitches and we have two.

“Since the chairman has come in, things are much better. There is much more quality but everybody knows it’s not enough.

“With the academy, they are doing well the way they are working and the conditions they are in.

“But I believe in the future Sheffield Wednesday will be with a proper academy and proper pitches but these things take time. We can’t do this in one or two days.

“There are priorities and at this moment the priority is the first-team.”

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Wednesday have tied down Liam Palmer, who came through the ranks, to a new long-term contract and Carvalhal is pleased the club have sorted out the full-back’s future.

“It’s important because he is a player that was ‘born’ in the academy, he is a Sheffield Wednesday player,” he said. “He has value and it is important that we keep the players who have abilities, who are improving and getting better and better like Liam Palmer.

“It’s important to him and important to Sheffield Wednesday. It’s important to us to be with a player like Liam in the squad.”

The Owls head to Derby County tomorrow and Carvalhal is paying little attention to the Rams’ poor start to the campaign.

“I don’t look too much at the house of my neighbours,” he said. “I prefer to look to my house and arrange everything there and make sure everything is in a good way.

“We don’t want to lose the focus of what we must do. When you manage a big club like Sheffield Wednesday there are a lot of things that can disturb you but the best thing to do is focus on the fundamentals.

“I want to improve the process and work on the things we can do to improve the team and make better.”

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