Not the best 4 examples to somehow prove the point that you play plenty that you've grown yourself ffs Rossiter might make it, Flannagan is dead and the other 3 all got flogged on as they couldn't nail down a place after being bit part squad players. The fact that you've even listed Spearing - who's 27 this year - and you flogged on over 3 years ago - speaks volumes.
Again, read back, I never said anything about growing them, I said we had a reputation for playing them. All the players I've mentioned got game time. It's not great reading but we do play them.
This is the feller tasked with finding local talent. Ian Barrigan - Head of local recruitment please log in to view this image First Name:Ian Surname:Barrigan Job Title:Head of local recruitment Alex Inglethorpe Andrew Powlesland Nick Marshall Phil Roscoe Michael Beale Andy O'Boyle Andy Renshaw Mark Morris Tim Jenkins Richie Partridge Dave Moss Matthew Newberry Neil Critchley Liam Kershaw Mike Garrity Neil Edwards Joe Lewis Oliver Morgan Ian Barrigan Kyle Wallbanks Scott Mason Michael Yates Profile Ian Barrigan is the Academy's head of recruitment. He joined the club's youth set-up as a local scout in 1997 and has since helped attract the likes of Jon Flanagan, Brad Smith and Jordan Rossiter. He took over as head of recruitment in the summer of 2010. Here he explains his role in Kirkby. "I head up a large network of scouts who all look to bring in youngsters aged 6-14 years from the local area. "We cover all the local leagues and tournaments throughout the year as we look to ensure we attract the very best young talent to Liverpool Football Club." "But I will try even harder now that I've been slated on not606"
Being a supporter from Wales i have never really cared about if local players were apart of the team, i'd like the team to have an overall British quality throughout so i can relate but my favorite players over the years have been English, Spanish, Dutch and South American so i have no preference if there from Liverpool or not. I could understand if people from Liverpool felt it needed more of a local feel however.
I'm no expert, but I'd assume that our club would look for cheap options before exploring more expensive scouting ventures. Ie, local scouring which is far cheaper in many ways than searching abroad. The fact that there's very few local lads suggests a few things: Maybe talent is just **** the last few years. I know we all like Roy of the Rovers stuff and are usually biased towards our own, but I'm pretty sure the club would snap up local kids if they were available and good enough. Maybe the coaching is **** lately. If the talent aint there, the coaches might no't good enough so that when they're pitted against the best kids in Europe in our academies, ours get rejected. You're comparing a city of 500k to a world of approaching 7billion. Lets even go with 10% of those are under the age of 16. Are you likely to find better talent in a 50k pool or a 70million pool? Seems reasonable that most of our young talent are foreign right now given how much more global the game is. Game is more global. 20 years ago, the EPL was the biggest league in the world and the most watched. Now you've got plenty more countries who've seen their game grow so, simply, more people from more countries are getting involved. Again, that increases the odds of there being better players elsewhere than in our little pool of scousers. FIFA and football manager lifestyle. Instant success craved. No time to develop players any more and let them grow into a team - you buy the quality now and play them else face the wrath of fans. 15 years ago, Rossiter as he is now might have been getting game time in the PL, 30minute cameos and the like or starts against lesser teams. Now, no chance because Rodgers' head is on the block and he can't take the chance. Stagnated growth and players fall into the lower leagues eventually. Feel free to add more, but that sums it all up for me. We're simply not good enough in the grand scheme of things, for whatever reason you want to find, and we don't have the time/ability to develop locals any more, for whatever reason again.
There's no good looking for local talent anymore, just ask Jimmy having no local talent is the answer to all our problems......
