Aston Villa boss Dean Smith is delighted with the progress of their academy.
Jacob Ramsey is now making headlines, while this week Louie Barry was named Premier League 2 player of the month.
Expanding on Villa's rejuvenated academy, Smith said: "It's been a big effort since the owners came into the football club. They had a vision of how they wanted it to be. Sustainability is a hard thing to achieve in Premier League football by any club and, getting players through the academies, certainly helps that.
"JJ has just signed a new contract and we've seen what most of our under-18s and under-23s done against Liverpool in the FA Cup. That still bugs me that it's part of our recent 'form' at the moment that we've got beat by Liverpool so I'm trying to claim a few wins from our under-18s as well!
"But we've invested into the academy and we believe we want to become a real top academy throughout the country where people want to come and see a pathway for themselves."
