THE “negative image” portrayed of Worcester City is “poisoning” the club as they attempt to grow their junior set-up.

Head of youth development Luca Gabriel has spoken of the hurdles facing the Blue and Whites when trying to establish links with grassroots clubs in Worcester.

While City’s first team struggled on the pitch last season as they were relegated from National League North many of the club’s youth sides enjoyed impressive campaigns.

Gabriel said he was determined to expand the club’s academy with the introduction of a new three-tier system.

But with a large portion of fans unhappy with the running of City who have dropped three levels into the Midland League Premier Division due to financial reasons Gabriel admitted it made life difficult to achieve his ambition.

“The problem we have got is there are so many people who want to poison the club which sometimes gives grassroots clubs a negative image of us,” said Gabriel.

“Personally I don’t care about the politics as I am only interested in the football.

“My main focus is looking at how we can develop local talent, create a pathway for them and get the club back to where it should be.

“If I was to go to Nunnery Wood, St John’s or Worcester Colts there would be someone meddling saying you don’t want to be involved with them because of this or that. That’s a problem.

“Ideally it should be Worcester City playing in the Nerf Junior Premier League and a second team who play in the Midland Junior Premier League which is a bit more regionalised.

“Then we should be attached to a local grassroots club.

“If we could reach out to them that would be the third tier so you would never lose local talent because they would always be within the system.

“As a club we need to put our hands out and try to embrace some of the local grassroots clubs.”

Last term City’s under 13s won the treble, the under 14s achieved the double and the under 16s went the entire league season without losing a game.

They also clinched the Worcestershire FA Saturday Under 16s Cup following a 3-1 win over rivals Kidderminster Harriers.

There was also success for Worcester’s other age groups with their under 18s finishing agonisingly short of being crowned Junior Premier League champions.

Gabriel said it was the third year in a row he had seen his teams make progress and he is hoping to kick on ahead of Sunday’s trials at the University of Worcester.

“Every club have got their issues,” he added.

“But as far as football is concerned we are making progress.

“We have added to our infrastructure again with two more teams and hopefully we will produce more players.

“I know people are on about there not being many players produced by the youth system but we are producing them now.

“With the exception of one or two teams every age group finishes in the top three every year.

“It is a good achievement and we are getting better.

“We are not standing still and definitely not going backwards.”