Harrison recently left West Bromwich Albion to join Aston Villa.
The Aston Villa academy manager Mark Harrison wants to ensure that the best local talent does not follow the lead of Louie Barry and join Midlands rivals such as West Bromwich Albion.
Barry was recently plucked from West Brom’s youth ranks, where Harrison previously worked, by Barcelona.
But the new Bodymoor Heath recruit hopes that future versions of the teenage striker will instead sign for Aston Villa – and stay there, too, especially if they are already fans of the Premier League club.
Discussing his goals for the club this week, Harrison told the Villans’ official Youtube channel: “The medium-term is to make sure we’re competitive so we can recruit players (for) Aston Villa, an academy that is well respected throughout the country.
“So if we approach a player somewhere in the country, we’re competing with the so-called bigger academies, the Chelseas, the Manchester Citys, the Arsenals, the Liverpools and, equally, locally. We’ve got to make sure that locally Aston Villa are the club that everybody wants to come to.
“A player (Barry) left West Bromwich Albion to go to Barcelona. He lives in Sutton Coldfield, he’s a Villa fan, his dad’s a Villa fan, that just can’t happen in the future.”
Harrison helped West Brom to develop an academy that he claims was in the top five in England, one that produced the current Baggies players, Romaine Sawyers and Rekeem Harper, as well as the Burnley striker Chris Wood and the former England international Saido Berahino.
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