http://www.theoriginalcoach.com/#!the-liverpool-academy-way/c21in THE TRULY ICONIC FOOTBALL CLUBS ARE DEFINED BY THEIR ABILITY to dominate on and off the pitch. Perhaps no other enterprise is as results-driven as football and Liverpool Football Club, long the goliaths of English and European football, boast one of the most recognizable brands in the world. But long before a homegrown player takes that famous walk through the tunnel under the renowned This is Anfield sign on to that hallowed pitch, the journey begins at The Academy. The Academy opened in 1998 and is located in Kirkby in the northern part of Liverpool. True football development requires a club to invest time, energy, resources to create not only talent footballers, but true ambassadors for the club’s reputation, brand, and values. At Liverpool, it an academy system that boasts a list of graduates whose names are synonymous with Liverpool Football Clubs. Men like Billy Liddell, Phil Thompson, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Jamie Carragher, and Steven Gerrard are but a few of the stellar devotees to the red half of Merseyside. Liverpool Football Club commands the historical significance of producing winning football dating back more than a century. The fact is, Liverpool have claimed more top-flight wins than any other English team. To win five European Cups (only Real Madrid and A.C. Milan have more with Bayern Munich tied with five) is built on a foundation relying on consistency and cohesion from the bottom-up and the top-down. In world football there are few clubs that have the power and luxury to scour the world for the best young talent, but at The Academy, the goal is to rigorously scout the Liverpool area for promising and highly-coveted youth talents. The scouting network deploys scouts to local games and parks and depends on the brutal objective analysis of each report before a prospect is considered, as typified by this line in Michael Calvin’s excellent book The Nowhere Men: “When you are working for Liverpool, a lot of the time you are crossing names off your list.” The selective nature of the scouting system demonstrates the sobering reality of football that few see and even fewer fully understand. In the entire academy system in English football, the number of players in the system oscillates around 10,000 players who have been identified and had a dossier constructed on their progress. When a club like Liverpool considers putting an academy player on its books - and according to Calvin's book - it must balance the harsh truth that two-thirds of those given a professional contract by the time they are 18 are most likely out of professional football by the time they are 21. Liverpool’s academy starts training players from the U6 up to the U21 squad, which functions as the reserves. Like all top academies, training is structured on implementing and mastering the fundamentals of the football the club aims to implement holistically. The objective is about producing players who understand that The Liverpool Way is not just a catchphrase, but the modus operandi the club believes in. Each level targets the different pedagogical methods required to educate players on and off the pitch and are split into groupings of U6-U9, U10-U11, U12-U14 and U15-U16 age groups. Liverpool legends Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard started at the club when they were nine, Michael Owen became eligible to sign a schoolboy contract with Liverpool when he turned 12. Jordan Rossiter, Liverpool’s Academy Player of the Year in 2014, who was 18 months old when Steven Gerrard made his Reds debut and is lauded to be one of the "next Steven Gerrards" has been in the academy since he was 6-years-old is yet another local talent who was spotted playing for his local school side. Early on, academy players train in after-school sessions. Those who are selected to stay on into their teenage and more formative years have their education transitioned from their former school to the actual Academy. Here, players become scholars of the football academy and are groomed to play the system the current coach requires. Furthermore, players serve another purpose for the club: revenue producers. It is in every football club's best interest to produce talented footballers who will never make it within the parent club's giant structure, and sell them on to other interested clubs at a profit. As a player progresses through the age levels, the probability of making it as fully-fledge Liverpool player decreases dramatically as the older they get the more their performance is judged against the global talent pool a club like Liverpool has access to. As such, the club cannot ignore the importance of continuing the formation of a player’s educational foundation. Each year, The Academy trains and educates around 80-100 players. Each group is exposed to age-appropriate fundamental practices, which include small-sided games, technique repetition, and transition play in confined areas to ensure each player is exposed to both the attacking and defensive side of the game. The training environment is comprised of four full-size grass pitches, one state-of-the art artificial surface, seven to ten additional mini-pitches and an indoor football pitch. At the Liverpool academy the emphasis focuses on technique, attitude, balance and speed; the same principles that shape the first-team squad. Part of The Liverpool Way is the constant reminder that teamwork is more of a priority than winning matches. Much like the world’s famed academies, the philosophy has to be about producing players of the competitive and creative ilk to be technically, physically, tactically, and mentally ready for the rigors of the professional game. Once players reach the U18 and U21 levels, they are assessed before their professional status is decided. An exclusive few jump from The Academy at Kirkby to the training ground at Melwood, a facility reserved for the first team. In an interview with the Liverpool Echo, Academy director Alex Inglethorpe believes in striking the competitive balance required for a club like Liverpool to serve the local community while competing on the domestic and continental level. “Liverpool has always been synonymous with having local lads coming through,” he says. “Whether that’s a Michael Owen, a Robbie Fowler, a Steven Gerrard or a Jamie Carragher, that bloodline has always been there. We will always look to recruit the best, both from England and from abroad. But we also don’t want to forget what’s under our noses.” Despite historical success producing players who represent the Liverpool community, the state of football today requires powerful clubs to look beyond their own proximities. Liverpool faces competition for players from world class clubs boasting their own powerful and far-reaching academies less than 50 miles away. In addition to the proximal competition, fierce in-town rivals, Everton, have a strong youth setup as well. During the Rafa Benítez reign, Liverpool recognized the importance of bringing in outside methodologies and practices to oversee the revitalization of the club's talent mill. The Academy recruited the services of José Segura and Rodolfo Borrell, both of whom worked withFC Barcelona's vaunted academy, La Masia, to oversee the establishment of a strong Spanish-English pipeline of talent during the Benítez years. Under Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish, the club saw a refocused effort to recruit and foster domestic and local talent as the services of Raheem Sterling, Jordon Ibe, Martin Kelly, Jay Spearing, Jon Flanagan all graduated from The Academy. As the world of football aligns with the modern business practices of big-money transfers, even for unproven prospects, the football clubs vitality remains rooted in its ability to compete in the realm of the unpredictable. Brendan Rodgers with his progressive philosophy of possession-based football is competing for a footballer the whole of world football covets in the technically adept, speedy, and versatile transition player. Rodgers, who has been noted for his ability to personally name players in The Academy, is a man whose trust in the players must be reciprocated in their trust for him. It is of little wonder that many see Rodgers and his assistant, Colin Pascoe, frequenting the pitches at Kirkby to assess the work of Alex Inglethorpe on a regular cadence. In addition to his conferences with the youth coaches, the input of Chief Scout, Barry Hunter, is of the utmost importance. Liverpool Football Club is an example of a club in flux. Nobody can deny the impact of its historical success for English football both domestically and abroad. The challenge for Liverpool is not only to recreate its illustrious history, but to continue the ascendancy of the Liverbird - and to do that, the fledglings of Liverpool's football academy must be taught not only to fly, but to soar.
Shame Rodgers is bringing **** all through so far But seriously, he isn't. Under Rodgers, the youth (apart from Sterling who had already burst onto the scene before he came) has barely had a look in and instead have been shipped out of loan then discarded. Not saying they would have made it, nor that they weren't good enough, but that they simply didn't even get a chance. Ibe looks to be the next one to get some game time but even he saw the odd opportunity before Rodgers. For someone who's promised the owners to bring through youth, he's not really delivering on that yet and I think needs to do soon.
I agree, Rodgers spends brewsters on players that either aren't good enough or are shipped out on loan(costing the club wages)to the detriment of our decent youth players.
Flanno...? He's also have Wisdom games too. It's not enough but like you said, maybe they're not good enough?
Flanno and Wisdom forced their way into recognition due to their being vacancies in their positions at the time and fair play to the lads, but what of the rest? If they ain't seen as good enough prospects for the 1st team/squad in the future what are they doing at the academy? If they are good enough we should see more coming through the ranks, but Brendan knows that he hasn't got guaranteed time to bring them through so he panic buys mostly ordinary players that hardly play or that get loaned out.
So he struck lucky again, gotcha What about later on in the season when both Johnson and Enrique were fit and available yet Flanno continued to play? His buying record is ****, can't argue with that.
Funny you should mention Johnno, the tosser has stolen a living off us and have been sold or loaned out permanently.
Should never have been bought, Arbeloa was and still is a better RB (and LB) than Johnson. Why we sold him for a measly £3m to them pay £17m for Glen I'll never know!
Flanno broke through under Kenny and Wisdom has just been repeatedly loaned out since he had to play due to injuries. Rodgers hasn't actually brought anyone into the team who hasn't already had a crack and shown they can handle it by previous managers (well, Kenny). I do not question his ability to improve young players (Sterling, Coutinho, Henderson, etc etc) but he's not brought through anyone himself or given anyone a chance yet.All the new, gifted players who are staking a claim are the expensive kids he's bought in (Can, Markovic, Sakho, Moreno, Manquillo) Maybe the others aren't good enough, but I'm a strong believer in players being unable to show what they can actually do in the reserves. You need to be tried at a higher level to reach said level. Flanno was the third best RB in the reserves when he got (luckily due to injuries) his chance and he took it. Players need that chance - Rodgers, as yet, is to give anyone new that chance - even in the cup games. I don't count sitting on the bench watching the **** players underperform as being part of their learning curve.
Flanno wasn't wanted. Fans didn't rate him and he'd been out in the cold after his brief appearance under Kenny. But yeah, he made his debut under Kenny so he should get the credit How many youth players have we seen come through since Gerrard? They're not good enough. Sterling, Coutinho, Hendo, etc aren't our youth either, we bought them.
Flanno impressed under Kenny, a little rash perhaps, but I don't remember anyone wanting him out. I think academies these days will be international. Scouts trawling local sunday league pitches for players is long gone since there are better talent abroad so young kids being drafted in at 15/16 is the way it'll go. But even from that group Rodgers hasn't brought anyone through - only his 15mill+ 'youth'.
i think personally its an absolute lottery. the fact is at 8 years old a baby rocks up and in years gone by said babies were in effect told if they were good enough they would prob get to 18 at the club.... now however thats not the case. its a case that at 14 or so you are compared to youths across england and lfc try to snaffle all sorts. I think a child of 14 from the age of 8 is bascially an awful long time to be used like that then said ah well theres this kid in milton keynes or wigan or god knows where and we;d rather throw moeny at his daddy not you. i think one in a thousand 8 year old reds might make it to a real pro contract now if that. Not a basic one but a real honest to god first team contract. I just find it all bizaare and a flesh trade at this point anyway. Its not really right IMO.
It's a strange one as when Rodgers came in, he gave the current youth a chance. Sterling, Flanno, Kelly, Sinclair, Wisdom all got chances and played however only 2 of those had really settled on a starting spot. Since then, players from the academy haven't really been used with a few being moved on loan (albeit they may come back and play a part). But what Rodgers has done is he's brought in youth when it comes to transfers. Coutinho, Can, Moreno, Markovic, Origi, Manquillo were all under 22/23 when they signed for us and even players like Sakho/Sturridge/Balotelli were no older than 24 when signed. What that does is suggest to me that he wants to play young players. Maybe part from the owners and maybe part that Rodgers thinks it's easier to groom them into players that suit his style, like they say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Does this mean Rodgers wants control and he has more control over the players he can buy rather than who comes through the academy, or does it suggest that what has been available via the academy hasn't been good enough? We have a good young team but not many of them seem to be coming through the academy. We had a big restructure when Rafa was in charge 7 or 8 years ago and we should start seeing the benefits of that in the coming years so the next few season I'd hope players like Rossiter, Williams, Canas, Wilson, Sinclair, Ibe can now start to make the step up and intergrate with the first team. I know everyone talks about the EL and how distracting it is but it's a brilliant competition for a few reasons. It's good European exposure (most countries take it seriously and it can be an influence when signing foreign players), helps with your co-efficient if we do get back into the CL, gets the team and managers used to playing 2 games a week as well as working on tactics with a quicker turn around than having 1 week to prepare and it also is a great competition to give youth a chance. Some of the players mentioned above like Ibe, Rossiter, Wilson would benefit hugely from playing a part in 5-10 games in the EL each year as well as the odd LC game.
Stopped reading the article when it said the academy opened in 1998 the went on to say Liddle and Thompson were academy products With regard to bringing youth through, it all depends on the managers situation and the demands of the club/fans. A miid table club with low expectations can afford to bring youth into the team and see what they can do (see Southampton), a club pushing for honours or battling relegation are more likely to go with seasoned pro`s. Brendan wants a young side but has high expectations on him so, it makes sence for him to buy young players who have already gained experience at another club
Can't see what your problem is with the comment Diego, "academy" is only modern parlance for what it succeeded, back in the day they signed schoolboy forms and trained at Melwood or at Anfield. How else would we describe players like Thompson, Sammy Lee, Chris Lawler etc and their beginnings with LFC? They were scouted locally, trained by a club youth coach, played in FA competitions and at the age of 15 were either let go or offered a youth contract, much the same as today's kids except locals these days get overlooked and foreign kids are signed up. Today's players have to follow strict diet and training schedules, yesterdays players ate steak before matches and went on the beer every night. But all in all the progression system from schoolboy to youth to first team squad still applies doesn't it?
Then why say the academy was started in 1998? The academy system was supposed to be a step up from the old youth team system and includes much more than football training. reporters should at least get some things right
The academy used today did open in 1998 though and that's when the clubs youngsters had state of the art facilities as opposed to having to use Melwood in the evening. I can't get whether you agree or disagree with me.
Kind of both Liddle and Thommo were Liverpool "products", but they did not come through the academy system
They did. Because clubs academies were their schoolboy/youth system's rather than real buildings. please log in to view this image
