Big news from you guys. As much as I don't like him, or rate him anywhere near as highly as some he was a great player who often carried you. His heart and soul was in your club, sometimes to negative effect but he always gave his all. Its weird all these long term heroes leaving the league. respect to Gerrard for leaving the league too and not going to a direct rival. That would be pretty disrespectful.
Rafa overhauled the set up of the academy - it was always going to take time to bear the fruits but we are now. The talents coming through now are 10x the likes of the previous regimes. We had players like Ecclestone, Lindfield, Welsh etc etc. Now we have players like Canos, WIlson, Chirrivella, Ibe, Rossiter, Branagan, Sinclair.
If Rodgers fancied giving the kids some game time, we might see the next star coming through. Endless loans to 'lesser' teams and then sold at 21 isn't really going to progress them.
Isn't the last paragraph exactly what we've been trying to do since we ripped up what was a massively successful youth set up under Heighway. Think about the youth players we produced from that set up in the 90's....Fowler, McManaman, Carra, Gerrard and Owen. Every one of them local. Now think about who we've produced from the multi-million pound academy. Sterling (already a talent before arriving) and Flanagan (another local). That's two in twenty bloody years. Now look across the park and see who's come through their youth system in that time period. Rooney, Barkley, Hibbert, Osman, Rodwell etc (again all local). So tell me again why we need to scour the earth for youth players who never make it rather than looking at local lads who have the ability and most importantly the desire to play for their local club? Explain to me something I've never understood...what was so wrong with the system of scouting local lads that produced the best young talents we've had at Anfield over the last three decades?
That's modern footy for you, too many kids that may have the right ability and desire are dropped before having the chance to prove it.
It wasn't a successful system. You've named 5 players in around 20 odd years. We had a system which coached and handled players incorrectly - Owen was overused, as was Fowler which cut short their careers. Gerrard wasn't coached properly because he was a jack of all trades and a victim of his own versatility and Carra was a limited player with heart. Rafa overhauled the system - was you expecting instant results? Cruyff overhauled Barca which saw the benefits 20 years later. We now have quality youth coaches who focus on the most important aspects of the game i.e. tactical and game intelligence. And to say Sterling was already a talent - he was only 14 at the time. You've also named average players like Hibbert and Osman. Is that the level of player you want? Whilst it is nice to have local lads in this team, it doesn;t bother me where they are from.
Sorry lads but this is biased - it's like those who say Flanagan is better than Manquillo or believe Carragher was a world class defender, or Gerrard is better than Pirlo.
People always complain that investment in youth coaching has not improved the England team by the next tournement 2 years later. Its makes the people criticizing look so stupid. It will obviously take 10 -15 years to see real big results... We are seeing major improvements at LFC's academy due to really good investment in scouting.
Flanagan and Manquillo are a different style of player. Even though they play in the same position they are not direct comparisons. They suit different types of games. Its like comparing Michael Owen to Andy Carroll. Carragher's performance in Instanbul was world class. He pulled off an incredible performance on the very biggest stage, under the great pressure, against world class players. He then repeated that week in week out against teas like West Ham, helping to forge one of the best defenses around statistically. That defense was then poor with out him in it. Carragher just did not have the glamour of other world class players in his game.
Good counter points but at this moment in time the new structure hasn't done enough so there is an argument to be had, through my experience with my lad in and around PL clubs kids are not given a chance and there's always a so called better option that has been scouted somewhere in the world. Sour grapes on my part maybe but if I take a step back from my lad I see the same thing happening to loads of kids.
None of that has anything to do with the youth system, overplaying them was down to managers. As for the previous years we were winning league titles year after year Jimmy and still managed to produce players good enough to get into that amazing team. At the moment we can't even produce players who can get into this pile of **** team. You live in a dream world, me I look at results and facts...and the fact is we now produce **** all from where we previously produced class. And to answer your question....would I rather produce good, honest, hard working Prem class players like Hibbert and Osman or players that never play more than a handful of games before being farmed out to second division Spanish clubs....that one answers itself really.
Robbie Savage thinks Gerrard should play in the middle of the back 3 instead of Skrtel. As a sweeper.
I would disagree - Manquillo is a better defender and better in possession. Carra would have very good games but he;s not world class. Far too limited in his ability - Hyypia was by far a better defender. This is not me slagging off local lads - but just a point to highlighting how we show bias towards them in hyping them up beyond their actual ability, and applies to local talent.
Think he would find himself on far less cash in Italy or any other European country! There's always the Indian Premier League next time around!!
Can't comment on the 70/80's but I presume it was easier to attract players given our stature and success. Now youngsters have City, United,Everton etc to choose from.
Not true. Young local lads will always stay local as long as they believe (and their parents believe) they will be developed and treated well. Southampton have no trouble attracting and developing young English talent do they? Our problem isn't attracting the best local talent, our problem is that since the academy was set up the ethos changed. We simply don't look local as much anymore. Talk to local coaches (especially the time served ones) and ask them how often Liverpool's scouts are watching local talent compared to twenty years ago. The majority will give the same answer and for me its a deeply depressing one, especially in a city where 99% of kids are still football crazy....Liverpool as a club simply don't scout locally as much as they did then. Edit: Not just that we don't scout as much locally but we bring in a lot more young foreign talent. On the face of it that's not always a bad thing...until you look at how many of them have made it through to the first team eh. Absolutely bloody none of them.
Are you for real JS? Why can't you comment on the 70/80's? If you had done your homework you could! You would also know that Everton had a vaunted youth programme in the 60's. Every Div 1 side had scouts scouring the country for young talent. In my school we won the Echo Cup and the Martinadale Cup in successive years. I know for sure that all of us were visited at home by scouts anxious for us to have trials or sign apprentice contracts - and I wasn't anywhere near good enough! So not only did local lads have opportunities in Liverpool but also across the country. The one thnig that all of those lads had in common was that they would go through hell fire to be taken on by either Liverpool or Everton. Now that's the kind of heart that I'm talking about.
