Arrows look good for a top-eight finish this season, reasserting their credentials with a 1-0 victory over African champions Mamelodi Sundowns in the Nedbank Cup last-16 on Saturday.
Nduduzo Sibiya, who netted a superb winner against the Brazilians at Lucas Moripe Stadium, has been one of the finds of the season. And Larsen feels a modest club like Abafana Bes'thende have to nurture young talent to remain competitive.
"What we have done as a club in the last eight games of last season was we started to blood a few of the Diski boys," said Larsen.
"[Sibusiso] Sibeko, [Lungelo] Dube, [Nkosingiphile] Gumede, Sibiya to name a few and we knew they will play a big part this season because we have a small squad. In total we have 34 players inclusive of the MDC team. If you can look at our starting lineup, Gumede has come from Diski. We also have [Ricardo] Goss, our right-back Dube came from Diski, Sibeko, Sibiya come from Diski. On our bench today we also had [Romario] Dlamini from Diski, [Kwanele] Hlongwane from Diski and [Velemseni] Ndwandwe as well.
"We are a small team with limited resources, and that’s the way forward for us to produce players from our development. I don’t think our club get enough credit for the number of players brought through from Diski. I think Maritzburg is another team that has done well in that department. That’s the only way. We don’t have enough budget to buy players, we buy freebies and promote from our development and that's the way it is."
