City have more where George Green came from in their production line.

Green could eventually net the club £2m from the deal they struck last month with Everton.

And head of youth Peter Horne believes there is talent just as exciting as the Dewsbury-born midfielder capable of emerging from Valley Parade’s younger age groups.

On Saturday, 14-year-old midfielder Sumali Cissa played 40 minutes in the youth team’s 2-0 loss to Doncaster.

As City head for Boston tonight in the FA Youth Cup second round, Horne revealed his conviction that they can keep finding budding talent.

Horne said: “I could name other players in our programme that I know have the same potential as George.

“It’s our job to enhance that ability and then work as a club to either produce them for our first team or move them on somewhere else.

“I’m chuffed to bits for George because he’s such a good kid. It was a great deal both for the player and Bradford City.

“He’s a potential Premier League player. There are no ifs or buts about it.

“I’m quite confident he’s gone to a club that will identify that sooner rather than later.”

City’s policy of selling on their brightest young talent remains an established way of generating cash while they remain stuck in the lower divisions.

Horne accepts the situation but, like any coach, would love to see more home-grown players making their way up the club ranks.

His son Louis played only one senior game before he was released last summer. Horne feels too many youngsters have fallen away after getting a brief opportunity – something that he is confident the development squad will rectify.

“We’ve lacked that development as a club between the ages of 18 and 21.

“We’ve lost too many in that gap. For obvious reasons, I won’t name players because there’s a personal sentiment to one of them but that age group is a key area and we’ve lost the plot over the past few years.

“At least three or four players have made their senior debuts and, for whatever reason, the manager has not persevered with them.

“Maybe they’ve been afraid to carry on with their development, which is wrong.

“That is why putting the system in place for 18 to 21-year-olds is so important. It won’t happen overnight but I’m sure you will see the results with those players breaking into our first team.”

Several of the development squad have been sent on loan to toughen up in non-league football. Horne sees Dominic Rowe’s success at Barrow as proof that the policy will work.

He added: “There’s not much difference between League Two and the Conference Premier. You’ve got teams like Fleetwood paying fortunes and you only have to see our division with Crawley going straight to the top.

“So if you can cope with that then there’s no reason you cannot do the same here.

“You see how well Dominic is doing at the moment and I hope he comes back to us ready to go into our first team.”

  • The date of City’s JPT northern area semi-final at Oldham has been confirmed as Tuesday, December 6.