Rangers head of academy Craig Mulholland believes more sides will look to copy Brentford's model when it comes to youth development.
The Bees scrapped their academy in 2016 and now run a B team that plays friendly matches against a variety of opponents at home and abroad.
Rangers have done something similar with their development squad, while still keeping their academy while Huddersfield have downgraded from category two to four with the focus on their U18s and above only.
And, for Mulholland, he believes it has a good chance of working for the Bees, who are always going to struggle when it comes to keeping players out of the grips of the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham.
He told GetWestLondon: “We know some of the Brentford guys really well and discussed their model when we were deciding to do what we are doing and actually I think if you are, and no disrespect to Brentford, a smaller club among Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur then it's going to be difficult to retain your best young players.
“It's slightly different with Rangers as we're probably the bigger club among smaller ones.
“I think it's a model that more and more clubs will look at and say can we invest a resource at the top end and build good relationships with Rangers and Celtic and in England with Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs; take the best ones that don't make it there and actually you might have more chance of producing players that can make the first team.”
Financially, Brentford are saving money from not having an academy and, although the B team is in its infancy, the likes of Ilias Chatzitheodoridis and Theo Archibald have made their senior debuts this season.
Mulholland added: “If you look at today's game. Theo Archibald played who we know well as he used to play at Celtic.
“I felt he was the best Brentford player, maybe aside from the goalie, if you look at that; can Brentford bring a lad through from eight years old?
“I don't know but they are taking talented players from Scotland and he's been in Brentford's first team already.
“You see him there and you see a prospective talent. If you can pick up more of them it's a model that can potentially work.”
Clubs judge academies on two areas. Chelsea, for instance, use it is a moneymaking tool with the profits from player sales and loan fees more than covering their costs. Fulham, on the other hand, judge it on the players produced such as Ryan Sessegnon.
But what gets a player through to the first team or is it just luck, in terms of an injury or having one special talent on your books?
Mulholland answered: “Luck plays a part (in a player breaking through), of course it does, but for me it has to be within the DNA of the club.
“What I mean by that is your board of directors buys into it, your director of football buys into it, your manager needs to be selected on the basis he plays young players.
“If you leave it to chance, it won't happen. You need to do it by design so at Rangers, for example, our director of football is Mark Allen who was the academy director at Manchester City for nine years.
“He believes in it. Our board believes in it and, probably for the first time at Rangers, we all believe in developing talent.
“If you look at the top European academies who have done it time and time again, they believe in it from top to bottom and that's the fundamental bit. A young player will have a pathway to get through.”
While the Rangers head of academy was talking about his club in particular, the same can be applied to Brentford as well.
B Team boss Kevin O'Connor revealed last month: The head coach has two players, virtually every session, involved with the first team.
“It’s an unwritten rule. I think that’s amazing. It gives the players that exposure and the opportunities to impress him.
“I can’t see it being clear as that. The players that have had the opportunities; the first team players are talking about them. I think the setup is working for us.”
