Saints boss George Burley won't be afraid to turn to the club's youngsters to bolster his first team ranks this season.

Burley welcomed his players back to work after the summer break for the start of pre-season training at Marchwood yesterday ahead of a busy pre-season featuring eight games in 20 days and a two game tour to Norway.

Among many other things, the St Mary's chief will use the pre-season programme to assess whether any of his youngsters look capable of following the likes of Gareth Bale and Andrew Surman from the academy into the first team.

With summer departures freeing up space in the first-team squad and a confession that he will have to sell before he can buy, promotion from within is one option available to Burley to increase the number of players at his disposal.

And Burley has challenged the club's youth stars to use the pre-season programme to prove they are capable of making the first team grade.

Burley said: "Pre-season is always very important.

"If players can get good fitness levels they can prevent injury and it can strengthen them up for the rigours of the ten months coming up.

"And it also gives us a chance to see the young players and how they have progressed through the summer.

"In pre-season you have a lot of games and your kids are training with the first team, so it gives you a chance to look at them training non-stop with the first team squad for two weeks.

"Some might look very strong and enthusiastic and be able to push their way into the first team squad.

"We go away to Norway for a couple of games and you think I might take some of the young kids with me'.

"If you are good enough, you will get the opportunity and that's the key to it.

"Are they good enough to push in there? If they are, they will get a chance."

Burley has shown throughout his managerial career that he is not afraid to throw youngsters in at the deep end.

The likes of Kieron Dyer, Richard Wright and Titus Bramble flourished early in their careers under his tutelage at Ipswich Town.

Spurs midfielder Tom Huddlestone made his first team bow under Burley at Derby on the opening day of 2003-04.

And, in his time at St Mary's, Burley has seen Bale and Surman progress from promising academy prospects to fully-fledged first-teamers.

The likes of David McGoldrick and Adam Lallana head a group of teenagers tipped to be the next off the Saints production line.

And Burley said: "There has always been an emphasis on youth at the club.

"Certainly since I have been here we have had a lot of young players come in to the side and that will never change."

One young player missing yesterday was striker Leon Best.

Though there has been no official confirmation that he has left St Mary's, Burley viewed Best's no-show as a clear indication that the 20-year-old striker is exploring other options.

"Leon is out of contract and he is not here so I presume he is speaking or training with some other club," said the manager.

"We made numerous offers to him but so far he hasn't accepted."