When Brian Tinnion first returned to Bristol City around a decade ago as director of youth recruitment, he would easily attend over 300 games over the course of the season to cast an eye over potential players.
From standing on the terraces of Carlisle, Grimsby and Scunthorpe to name a few outposts, while battling the most hardcore of British elements, it's those countless hours of watching, devising scout reports and negotiating that have played a big contribution to City's successful academy in the present day.
For the inconsistencies in the first team, there has been one constant with the youth set up and it's their ability to win football matches. "Bristol City Under-21s win again" has become a regular trend after the young Robins put five past Crystal Palace in the Premier League Cup on Monday.
This is an opponent who have a Category One academy. Only Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea sit above them in the table having lost just one league game all season in 11 matches.
Just a few weeks ago, City put four past Newcastle and scored five against Watford in their Professional Development League to cement their spot at the top. Last season, Ali Hines' side reached the National League Final but fell at the final hurdle.
Then you've got the academy prospects creating their own pathway into the first-team: Alex Scott, Antoine Semenyo, Tommy Conway, Cam Pring, Zak Vyner, Ayman Benarous, Max O'Leary... the list goes on and you get the gist. In summary, City's youth set-up everything from the recruitment, the coaches, facilities and players are very, very good.
The foundation of that success has been built over years and years of hard graft. Yes, the Lansdowns have generously invested heavily in a superb training facility at Failand that has played a factor in attracting some of the best talent to make the move to the South West and it can't be underestimated.
But throwing money at an idea isn't always a solution. You still need the right people, the right education and the right mentality to cast a belief that these youngsters, whether they're eight or 18, are not only good footballers but good people.
"We did the new scholars the other week and we are meeting with them and the parents, and we tell them - you come into this building, and you're humble and polite, and you respect the staff," Tinnion tells Bristol Live.
"Part of this scholarship programme is your education. So when you go into education, you respect the Education Department and you do your work properly. I'm not bothered whether you're Einstein. Whether they get an A or they get a B or whether they get a C, it's how you conduct yourself in education because it's part of your programme. So they're all very, very clear on what we expect and the standards that we set.
"I think we're creating good young people, as well as creating fantastic players we help create good people and teach them to stay humble. And that's what we want."
City have that in abundance - you just need to listen to a 19-year-old Scott in an interview to hear how he responds to speculation over his future. He's not the only one by a long stretch with Conway and Semenyo having a humility that makes them so likeable, while others such as Vyner, Pring and O'Leary are just generally down-to-earth and good people.
Creating that environment and culture is so important but that also means coaches have to have a ruthless side to get rid of the bad apples, even if they do have all the talent in the world.
"Over the years we've had them, we're really good players who haven't fulfilled it because they haven't the right attitude," Tinnion added. "We're constantly talking to them and telling them, 'this is what's expected of you' over the years.
"We have a lot of scouts in the community who know these players, and they watch them over a period of time. And they're watching how they play, they're watching how they behave and they're watching their attitudes.
"A massive part of this academy and how we work is their attitudes and their willingness to learn and listen which is a massive part. Now, we've had really good players in this academy over the past, I'd say, five or six years, and we've actually let go because their attitudes weren't what we wanted.
"In this academy, we don't have that now. If they do come in and they become a problem, then we will take them out and we won't have them here. Because we don't find it good for the rest of the players who want to listen and learn and want to get on and want to do the best. We take out the problem.
"To go into a first-team environment, you've got to have a certain attitude. If Nige comes in and says 'right, I need a left back or I need a midfield player's training today' there's no way I put anybody there who I couldn't trust as a person before the ability even comes into it.
"But we don't have that problem here. Because every player that goes over and trains for the first-team, the first thing Flem (assistant Curtis Fleming), Dave Rennie, Jason Euell and the manager says is 'wow, great lads, and they trained so well and they didn't look out of place' That's the constant feedback we get. And that's really good for us."
Despite being a Category Two academy, City have adopted a Category One model. That means there are teams from Under-8s onwards who all have full-time coaches and part-time coaches that work alongside them.
In a 30-minute chat with Tinnion covering every topic from the academy to his new role as technical director and his own experience coming through as a player back in the day, his passion for the club, the staff and his players shines through. With Joe Low, Dylan Kadji, 16-year-old Elijah Morrison, Sam Bell and Ryley Towler all waiting in the wings, the future remains bright.
As Low, Bell and Towler have all found in the past, there will be obstacles along the way coming into the first team. The former was taken off at half-time after a difficult professional debut against Lincoln, and Towler endured a similar fate against Millwall last season.
Bell came off at half-time last season against Birmingham at Ashton Gate when he started at right wing-back. But it's that mentality to bounce back when the going gets tough that convinces the coaching staff that their futures belong at City.
Tinnion said: "It was very different than when I came through. It was a tougher environment. You didn't get looked after as well as they get looked after now when we were young, that's for sure.
"So we had a bit of a tougher upbringing on that side, but it does stand you in good stead. It was mentally tough. The thing about football, I think the perception outside about football is you turn up and train, it's easy and you just play on a Saturday but they don't know there's so much more.
"You have to be mentally, mentally tough to be in this environment and this industry. So part of what we try to tell these young boys is there's going to be ups and downs. It's not going to be always a nice straight road.
"There's going to be rocky roads along the way. It's how tough mentally are you to be able to handle that. It's not just a football ability. It's the attitude and it's the mental toughness to be able to handle really tough situations.
"Alex Scott getting subbed after 37 minutes (against Luton Town last season). Scott could have went under but he's mentally tough enough to come into training the next day. So it's not just a football ability. It's the attitude. And it's the mental toughness to be able to handle sometimes really tough situations."
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