http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-Ive-look-wage-slip-I-want-opt-tax-thing.html People often ask what makes a Liverpool player? Talent and ability is the obvious first point of attraction but we want a winning mentality, a strong character. Someone who puts their personality on a game. Andre Wisdom has personality, Raheem Sterling has it - you know he is on the pitch. We heard about him when he was 14 and on the bench at QPR and even saw him on Soccer AM doing the Skills School, where he was brilliant. We watched him in the England U15s set up, put the intelligence together and knew he was for us. We study players from the age of five. At that age you are looking for someone who stands out in terms of co-ordination, maybe he is very quick or very athletic. We invite mini clubs to come in so it also creates a feelgood factor with strong community spirit. The local clubs feel an affiliation with us. Five-year-olds often all chase the ball together so we break that up and give them little training exercises. Even at five we are looking to see if they can play with right and left feet. Some may just be good at every sport they try. Raheem, for example, is also great at table tennis and that can give you an indication. We'll keep inviting different groups in of five, six, seven and eight-year-olds, inviting some back, and we go through thousands of players. Everton and Manchester United do the same. If you don't do it then when it comes to the time you can sign a player, at nine, you won't know who the best ones are and they could sign for other clubs. The manager Brendan Rodgers and I have a regular monthly meeting and we speak three or four times a week. I always make sure I call him 'the boss'. It sets an example for the lads to follow and it’s something I’ve always done with Roy Evans, Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez, Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish. To be manager of Liverpool Football Club is a massive role with huge responsibility and that should be reflected with respect. He is the boss and that's how players and staff should address him. The manager gives fantastic support to the young players, that’s evident with who has figured in the first team this season. We've had six academy players involved this season not including Raheem as he was involved last year. If I want a player the manager and I go over it. He asks how he will fit in, watches a DVD of the player and then if we pursue it will spend an hour with the parents and with the boy. Young players at Liverpool are treated as one of our family, one of our own. We are their surrogate family if you like and it’s important we educate them, not just in football but in life. Gone are the days when apprentices were cleaning boots or toilets and baths but there was an important side to those chores. We make sure our lads visit Alder Hey Children’s Hospital not just at Christmas but monthly. We want them to empathise with the young children there and realise just how lucky they are to have the life they have. While we there, one of the organisers said that Conor Coady, one of our England U19 internationals, was one of the nicest people they have ever had visit the hospital because of how he helped out, got involved. That gives us a sense of pride that we are doing the right things Generally, we're helping them grow up, train them for life. We don’t just want good footballers we want good, rounded men. As footballers’ careers improve they have to do less and less in life but if they don’t progress they need to know how to cope in the big wide world. We are aware of people’s perceptions and the trappings for young players with money. We always tell them to make sure their first car is a small one and we bring the police in to talk to them about safe driving. Sadly, we’ve heard of it so many times of kids in cars speeding and getting involved in accidents. It happens so we have to make sure our lads get the right message. Phil Roscoe and Clive Cook do an unbelievable job looking after this aspect of their education. Before last night's NextGen Series game against Inter Milan - which we won 4-1, the lads put in a marvellous performance to go through to the knockout stages - we had a friendly match on Saturday morning at Kirkby between our Under 18s and reserves. Marc Pelosi, a German-born American left-sided midfield player who has been with us for about a year, and our Hungarian striker Krisztian Adorjan both did well. Rodolfo Borrell, who is very hands on, myself and Alex Inglethorpe had a discussion and both will play at St Helens on Tuesday. The NextGen Series has been fantastic for us. The lads experience what it is like to go to the next level. You are travelling across Europe like the first team do. Spending time at airports, on planes, in hotels, coping with the downtime, playing top European teams such as Sporting Lisbon. It’s a brilliant learning curve. Even in the games you have different referees and formations to adjust to. For the likes of myself it allowed us to scout one or two players too. One that was outstanding last year was Joao Texeira at Sporting. We knew when we saw him he was one for us and when we got the chance to sign him the manager backed me and we spent a considerable sum on him. The trouble was when we got to the medical his back was in a seriously bad way. We questioned going ahead with it but he was worth the risk. He was put in a back brace for six months and after some fantastic work by the physios he is starting to play again. He is going to be a top, top player. The scale of this club was brought home to the players when we went to Singapore prior to Christmas. The support Liverpool has in the Far East is amazing. We took our U19s yet there were thousands at the airport to greet us. They even had banners with Adam Morgan's name on them. We played in a tournament and it was beamed on TV to 50 countries. You could see it was difficult for some of the lads to comprehend but it's all part of the education. Welcome to being a player at Liverpool Football Club.
Yeah, I didn't realise how much faith we put in this lad in terms of financial cost and his injury problem. But it does show you that we have immense faith in his potential! I have heard a lot about him but I haven't seen him for our u21's - does anyone have any info on his style and recent performances?
he was a good player for Sporting before we got him, def see the potential he has. didn't realise he had back issues, makes sense now why i have never seen him player for us.
we'll see, much depends o nthese back issue and they can just be dibilitating... or could be growth issues that are resolved. anyway.... we've a LOT of talent but the thing people don't get is we have to sell 70% of it and keep the cream. wisdom has a great chance to be a england right full... but where does ryan mclaughlin go then? clearly flanno is in his way so will flanno go? The worst thing the club can do is hold on to players and block up the ranks. we let silva, and ince go and people complained... but we brought stelring and suso through... now there is room in the reserves for ibe and pelosi! the only thing i don't get is why we want to buy ince back cos i don't see where he fits the firsts.... anyway...... its a conveyor belt not a once in a generation thing and for that we should be grateful!
I know what you mean MITO and I guess we just have to accept the judgement of the Academy staff when they let players go. I was quite disappointed that we lost Silva because I thought he was an exciting player but there questions over attitude and he seemed to be hit and miss. Ince is a different case in that I believe that he just wanted first team football, and it wasn't that we didn't want to keep him. Another fantastic element to our youth policy is the versatility of some of the players - i.e. you mention Wisdom as a right back but I think he would move in a CB position. Suso has the ability to play on the wing or as CAM. I remember when Rafa was here and Suso was in the reserves - Suso was immense as the CM but was constantly played out on the wing and I couldn't understand the reasoning behind this but it was all about his education and intelligence and it's paying off.
we def have a lot of potential coming through but as you pointed out where do they all fit in. Sterling,Coady,Wisdom,Texteria,Suso,Mclaughlin,Ibe they are the ones we are most excited about, but out of them lot how many will make it, 1-2, 3 if lucky, and they are the better choices to come through and hopefully make it. agree on Ince i dont get why we are looking at getting him back, he has done great in the championship but can he make the step up, if we do get him i hope so.
i remember when Rafa started playing Johnson at LB in pre season friendlies and i thought what the feck are you doing Rafa, and we are reaping the rewards for that now, as we have someone who can cover Lb when needed in Johnson and have decent cover for RB in Wisdom and Kelly. just a shame Rafa isnt here to reap the rewards for his hard work done in sorting out the youth setup.
I agree that its always disappointing but sometimes guys like silva or amoo even rely on being that bit quicker or stronger at the youth levels, i thin kwe identified suso and sterling and cleared the rest which is quite fair. If ibe comes through in a year or two then its great common sense yeah? I think ince was like eccleston... he wanted more moeny and wouldn't sign up so the club prob took a view that cashing in was good. I still can't see where he would fit i nto the firsts even with his reocrd at blackpool. sturridge, borini, sterling... surely all 3 would be ahead of him? I think suso's best position is ACM or second striker. the thing suso learned which made him a first team player IMO was work rate. there was a period there where he nearly vanished but he came back and was tracking back, tackling and working very hard and this made the difference. On wisdom... i think his pace and ability, plus size makes him an awesome full back. I think he's far better than kelly at it and its kelly who should be cb. again... kelly, coates at CB then wisdom and johnson at RB should equal a challenge for mclaughlin to get in. it'd hurt wisdom to push him in the middle now... same as micah richards.
that is fair to say... but he did do it to himself also. i think he laided the foundations but his work on the firsts with keane, aquilani and the players he alienated like alonso etc was what did for him. If he'd won that europa who knows but i think we have to move on form it and think about whether rafa would have put the three yuong lads in at all? who knows... rafa = legend but its not like it wasn't justified to sack him if you ask the neutrals
What annoys me and I hope it stops is we sold Ince for not very much money and he was certainly worth more. Now I agree that Flanno will go but I would say he is good enough to play as a regular in a PL team lets say QPR for arguments sake so I would value him at 1.5M that will obviously be negotiable but I would expect to have something near that or future payments depending on performance. Now take Robinson who also looks to be out of favour I rate him very highly and would put a large price tag as I think he may be very good in the future so again we may have to sell low but there should be sell on clauses or performance/appearance money built into any deal. Anyway my point being we sell too low, yes sometimes players need to move on as there is no room in the squad but if we are to get the most out of the academy then it should also be financial as well as first team players.
Ince was out of contract when he joined Blackpool, you got a compensation fee due to him being under 24, so you didn't sell him as such. You just negotiated the compensation fee rather than it going to tribunal, & you had the sense to include a sell on clause.
I think Ince would be rotated with Sterling. As promising as Sterling is, his output and productivity isn't that great (it will come in the future). So we need to add goals and assists from the wide positions. I do like Wisdom and Kelly at RB - they fit the profile physically in that they are both strong and quick but I think we need more from the RB. We need a RB who can dribble, take on a man and ultimately get the ball into the box. I think Kelly and Wisdom are good at driving past players with pace and power, but with less guile and trickery. Someone like McLaughlin is fantastic at dribbling and weaving in between players and he looks like a more natural RB especially under BR's system. His crossing is pretty accurate as well which is the most important element.
