BOLTON are committed to a plan of `coaching the coaches' to ensure Chinese youngsters get the best chance to perform on the world stage.

The Trotters currently have two promising young players on trial as a result of their co-operation agreement with Wuhan FC.

Striker Yang Changpeng, at 6ft 9in the tallest professional player in the world, and fellow 17-year-old Zhou Liao will spend the next month training with the Bolton academy in a bid to show they have the ability to play in the Premiership.

Even Sam Allardyce admits it is asking a lot of the pair to achieve their aims in such a short spell, which is why the north-west outfit want representatives to spend more time in China trying to ensure young players receive the best footballing education possible.

Allardyce revealed: "We started our work with Wuhan on the commercial side last year, then we set up a coaching clinic in the area to make sure we could help with the development of the youngsters.

"The problem is if you don't bring the kids up in the right way, they learn bad habits and it becomes very difficult to change them.

"Having the right basics is really important and, while China has such a huge population, it is not a wealthy country, so we have to do our own little bit to help the game over there."

Bolton are considering sending their own academy team out to Wuhan at some point in the future, although for the moment their efforts are limited to arranging a closed-doors friendly for Yang and Zhou, who are not allowed to play a competitive game in the United Kingdom under strict work permit regulations.

As a result of their deal with Wuhan, Wanderers will receive some cash should any of the club's youngsters command a fee on the open market.

However, as Allardyce points out, the main aim is to unearth a gem good enough to appear at first-team level for Bolton.

"If that happens with these two we will be very lucky because we have only just started this process," said Allardyce.

"But, as the partnership develops along the next months and years, they get to understand us better and realise what we are looking for, we might find hidden talent quicker than we may think." Tweet