MOTHERWELL boss Mark McGhee has revealed his Barbados summit with owner Les Hutchinson has sparked his desire to build a Fir Park academy capable of bringing through a conveyor belt of fresh talent.

McGhee travelled to the Caribbean to meet Hutchinson during international break and admits his second spell at Fir Park is going to be very different from his experience with John Boyle as chairman between 2007 and 2009.

“When we finished third, he got all excited about that experience, wanted third every year and bought players to try and keep us third to get us in Europe,” recalled McGhee.

“He never said: ‘Right, let’s develop young players.’

“I said to him Hamilton were relegated, but they did it knowing young players would be ready by the time they came back up.

“By the time they did come back up, they [the players] had played 100 league games.

"We didn’t have young boys like that, so we were doing two different things.

“With the new owner, we are taking a different approach.

“We want to stay in the league, we want to do as well as we can and get to cup finals, but we want to balance that with getting these young players through and I feel we have a responsibility with that.”

“I had three nights in Barbados and it went well.

“I’m not quite ready to talk too much about what was discussed, but I found him someone who has the heart for the football club and the long-term future of Motherwell firmly in his thoughts.

“I’ve only been here a few weeks, so I’m still in a really positive frame of mind and excited about it. Meeting Les and hearing what he had to say only fired that enthusiasm.”