EFC bring them through when they're seen as ready, yeah their financial position forces their hand but they find decent local talent on a regular basis. As for your 2nd point, I'd like us to have a scouting system that finds our own local players rather than buy someone that slipped through the net and ended up at another club outside the area.
So they don't have to be scousers then? You just want us to develop youngsters and save on stupid fees being paid out. The fact is, if you want young scousers in the team then the scope for recruitment is vastly reduced. Rather than getting the pick of the worlds young players, you've only got Liverpool. That is going to damage your chances of success. I am being devil's advocate a little bit here as I'd love to see more scousers in the team, its part of the reason I shout about Flanno so much. Equally, I'd like to see Man utd have more mancs and Arsenal have more southern pansies!
Walters yeah, as you all know, I appreciate any player willing to give their all on the pitch and Walters certainly does that. He'd have done a job for us over the last few years. If not, least he wouldn't have been terrorising us Nolan not so much.
A bit old but for our purposes, the information still stands - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...top-of-the-footballers-birthplace-league.html
I think a large portion of the blame can be put at Benitez door, as he was the one who ensured Heighway was ****ed off and brought in the Spaniards, who then brought in plenty of non local lads into your academy. It's vital for both clubs to retain a core of local lads, as without it they'll eventually drift away from the community that they're supposed to represent. There's always something special about a homegrown local lad making the first team and they just 'get it' more than the overseas lads.
Thinking about the players we've had over the years, I don't think Nolan would have been able to offer us anything more. We went years without adequate attacking options though so I think Walters would have done.
To provide a fair comparison, only footballers born within the boundaries of the City of Liverpool – population 435,000 – were included in its total, not those from neighbouring Merseyside boroughs such as Sefton or Knowsley. The same rule was applied to the cities of Manchester (pop 464,000) and Birmingham (pop. 1 million). So we can't have Kirkby and Maghull etc, bit they can have ****ing Trafford and Salford. Same as it ever was, in the immortal words of David Byrne.
The 'anything more' would have been passion and staying in touch with the local fanbase. None of which improves a players ability but it's that almost intangible that keeps the club connected to the city.
