Paddy McCarthy believes Crystal Palace have everything in place to take advantage of south London's "hotbed of talent" with the redevelopment of the club's academy close to completion.
The Eagles secured Category One status in July and their Beckenham base has been transformed in the ensuing months while the under-23s and 18s have already benefitted from joining the Premier League games programme.
In recent years the likes of Jadon Sancho, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Emile Smith Rowe have grown up within close proximity to Selhurst Park, but learnt their trade elsewhere with the club's academy not at elite standard.
While the aforementioned trio honed their skills at Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal respectively, the ex-Palace captain and current youth-team boss feels the next generation will have reason to stay closer to home.
McCarthy told the PA news agency: "We have a great recruitment area in south east London and within the M25. It is a hotbed of talent!
"And we now have a facility which is in the process of being up there with the best, a games programme in line with the best and we also have a pathway I would argue is probably better than others when you look at our history of getting players from the academy all the way through to the first-team.
"It has been shown even in the Premier League in recent years with Brandon Pierrick given an opportunity and John-Kymani Gordon has been given a little taste of it.
"Tyrick Mitchell is playing and excelling. I think the pathway has always been there at this football club and to now align that with the facilities and Category One status gives us a real advantage of attracting the best young talent around south east London."
With a completion date of mid-April, chairman Steve Parish is close to realising one of his big visions for the club.
Once finished the project would have turned the site into a campus with 14 dressing rooms, a new gym and sports science facility, four classrooms and various new 3G pitches.
The 37-year-old took over the age group in 2016 – a few months after retiring – and has watched left-back Mitchell work his way through the ranks in addition to Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who signed for Manchester United in a £50million deal two summers ago.
While delighted to see the position the club are in, the ex-defender will make sure the Crystal Palace DNA is not lost.
"I don't think anybody can deny the facilities were challenging," McCarthy admitted. "But when I first came into the academy, I was well aware of where the club had come from.
"2010 in administration the club nearly went under so I am aware of that recent history and it was fully understandable we were at the beginning of a process. Three years after administration we got in the Premier League, then we established ourselves and on the back of that now the academy can grow.
"But even when we go into this shining new environment, I think it is important we remember our roots and what makes this a special football club."
