United will have a new intake of College players for next season after setting up a link with the Bowen Academy from Australia. The young Australians have been in England recently and have played against and trained with United's youth and college sides as well as trips around the country to other professional set-ups. Six of the youngsters are already signed up for the Paignton College course next August and will return to Torquay in the summer in preparation for the new season.

Academy director Zane Bowen explained how the connection with United came about: 'We were invited over by Torquay United; we had some communication with Stuart Gibson when he was at Plainmoor and we were keen to come over and see what the set-up was like. Our academy is set-up along the same lines as those in England, we put a lot of emphasis on development so there is a lot technique work and at the younger ages we don't put too much into the physical attributes. We have been very impressed with Torquay, we have visited other clubs such as Ipswich, Birmingham and Coventry but Robbie (Herrera) & Matt (Williams) have shown us a good set-up and we like the way things are structured here. Our interest is to give our boys the opportunity to develop here and maybe one day some of them can make a career in the first team.

'Everyone has been very good to us, Torquay is a nice place with nice people and it is good to deal with people I like. I think many bigger clubs are under a lot of pressure to find young players quickly but at Torquay everyone is very positive and are trying to do things the right way. We want our boys to come and develop in a positive environment. The six players we have coming back over in July have been given scholarships by Torquay and the club will sort out all the accommodation, schooling and training and we will be bringing another group of under 16's over in a couple of months with a view to maybe finding some potential apprentices.'

United's College Co-ordinator Robbie Herrera commented on the new set-up: 'Before he left for Sweden Stuart Gibson got in touch with Zane as he new him from his time at Plymouth Argyle. It is great for us to have a contact like this and it can only be positive for the lads to come to England and develop and test themselves. The six boys will start with the college set-up and we will keep a close eye on them and if they keep developing then we can take a look at them with our trainees. The Under 16 team will be here soon and we will be looking to see if any of them are ready to be offered a youth team squad place so this will hopefully prove a very good link for Torquay United and Bowen Academy.'