AS.com

Former Spain under-21 and Olympic team coach Luis Milla has declared he believes José Mourinho is the main reason why so few players from Real Madrid's academy have made it into their first team in recent years, in contrast to Barcelona, who have very different ideals in this respect.

"The clubs have different policies," said Milla, who in his playing days turned out for both 'los culés' and 'los blancos'.

"Barcelona have always looked to their youth system, they have given it a huge amount of importance and it has worked very well. They will continue to trust in their youth players because it has served them well. Real Madrid have another policy, which is decided by their coach, and there are very few opportunities for home grown players."

Speaking at a charity event for Chad, Milla added it was time Madrid made it clear which policy they were going to follow.

"They need to make their position clear in this area. From afar there appears to be a huge difference between the Real Madrid first team and the academy. Making the step up from the academy to the first team is very difficult. There are clearly a number of players who are good enough, and their coach never tires of saying so, but he has a clear policy of not promoting players from the academy."

However, Milla stressed that Madrid's academy needs to revindicate itself and not give up after the recent spat between Mourinho and Castilla coach Alberto Toril.

"There are people who value the academy and believe it is the future of the team, but the academy players also needs to take a step forward, be strong and realise they have little chance of making it at Madrid."