Dundee’s academy production line has been hailed in recent years for producing some real talent.
Under the management of James McPake, a former youth coach at Dens Park, first-team debut after first-team debut was given to an emerging group of youngsters.
This season those same players have had to impress incoming boss Gary Bowyer as he builds his own version of the Dark Blues aiming to get back to the top flight.
Nine youth graduates have made their mark in the first team this season.
But what impact has the youth setup at Dens Park made this campaign?
Appearances
All of Dundee’s 27 matches this season have featured at least one academy graduate in the starting XI.
In fact, only three matches have not included two or more – the first match of Bowyer’s reign featured five.
That streak has been helped by Cammy Kerr only missing a single starting XI all season but is impressive nonetheless.
Kerr has featured more than any other academy graduate with 26 appearances this term.
Next on that list is Josh Mulligan with 24 appearances, Lyall Cameron on 20 and Max Anderson 16.
Harry Sharp has played 12 with Fin Robertson on 11 – Sam Fisher (2), Jack Wilkie (1) and Luke Strachan (1) have made fleeting appearances.
Goals
A simple metric to quantify impact but the most important one.
Dundee have scored 58 goals in all competitions this season – 15 of them have come from academy graduates.
That’s a not-too-shabby 26% of all goals this term.
Cameron and Kerr are the leaders in that regard – the former with five goals and latter on four.
Chasing that pair are Josh Mulligan, Max Anderson and Fin Robertson all on two each.
Assists
Ten of those 58 goals have been laid on by former Dundee youth team players.
And in his testimonial season Cammy Kerr is top of this table, too, alongside Josh Mulligan.
Both have set up three goals each with Cameron and Anderson on two.
Cameron’s pair of assists came in the same match – the extra-time goal glut against Airdrieonians.
The young playmaker laid on Fin Robertson before playing through Luke McCowan to complete the scoring.
Harry Sharp
Not to be left out of things is goalkeeper Harry Sharp.
He was Dundee No 1 for the first section of the season, impressing in his first sustained spell of top-team football.
In his 12 appearances, Sharp kept six clean sheets with half of those in the Championship.
The young Aberdonian, though, has had to be patient of late with the more experienced pair of Adam Legzdins and Ian Lawlor moving ahead of him in the pecking order.
Sharp hasn’t featured since mid-September but recently returned to the bench with Lawlor and Legzdins sidelined.
The future?
How many of these young talents will still be there come next season is a major question.
Kerr, Cameron, Mulligan, Anderson, Robertson, Sharp and Fisher are all out of contract at the end of this season.
New deals have been offered to a number of those players but none have been signed as yet.
The next names on the production line are the likes of centre-back Luke Graham, on loan at Albion Rovers this season, and Tom Findlay, also on loan in League Two at Elgin City.
Key to the future at Dens Park is continuing that emergence of homegrown talent to supplement the first-team.
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