WARRINGTON Wolves have revealed they are investing more time and money into developing talent of the future.

The departure of Lee Briers, Adrian Morley, Brett Hodgson and Garreth Carvell from the 2014 Wolves playing roster and more dependancy on promoted young players is a reminder of the importance of a successful production line.

Wolves have taken giant strides in this area and have now confirmed that player performance manager Ben Lazenby has been promoted to head of youth, junior recruitment and development as successor to John Bastian, who is now head coach at Featherstone Rovers.

Furthermore, the team working under Lazenby has new blood, including former Wolves player Gary Chambers, who was head coach at Swinton Lions last season.

The appointments and set-up:

* Phil Jones joins from London Broncos as player performance manager

* London Broncos 2013 player Chris Melling is appointed as rehab specialist and academy physiotherapist

* Jake Batsford takes on the academy head of strength and conditioning role

* The under 19s academy will be coached by Danny Fullerton and Lee Briers

* Gary Chambers returns to the fold as under 16s academy head coach Lazenby joined the club five years ago and worked alongside Bastian in enhancing Wolves’ focus on youth development.

He said: “We have developed a strong and honest culture here at Warrington and I am keen for that to continue, along with introducing a few new elements to the programmes currently in place that will see the club develop and improve in order to continue to provide the Warrington Wolves first grade with high quality young juniors.”

Andy Gatcliffe, Wolves’ chief executive, said: “Ben has achieved a great deal in the past five years on a personal development front but he has also shown a ‘real lead’ in developing the junior players at the club whilst working closely alongside Tony Smith.

“We are delighted to see some new faces within the youth development team and look forward to seeing the fruits of their hard work and experience unfold in 2014.”