Stevie G is out until September more…
(NO, get well soon Stevie)
The U18 beat Shrewsbury 4-0 with Moli scoring a hatrick more…
(Excellent)
Comolli is excited about the academy more…
(Rafa should be given credit for this)
Charlie Adam talks on how he will sacrifice personal glory to help LFC enter a new era of winning trophies more…
(YES, YES, YES, YNWA)
Ngoo sat on the bench as England tied North Korea 0-0 in the U20 World Cup more…
(They should have played him)
Metro claims that Warnock and Enrique are still in our plans more…
(Humm)
And finally Fiorentina’s president claims that the Aquilani deal is still on more…(Oh Boy, will this saga ever end)
On Twitter @empireofthekop
I’ve watched a lot of the U18 games recently (and a few Reserve games) on LFCTV (could be biased highlights I know).
It seems that now more than ever, local lads are being put in the mixer and it’s more often than not them perfoming (Hamill, Dunne, Eccleston, Ince, Coady, Sterling……… Last 12 months including Flano, Robinson, Spearing). Yeah I do also see a few foreign lads making the grade and that’s good to see with their nationity being placed as home grown in the future…….
My point is that I don’t think many local lads wouldve been offered the chance to progress even when performing as well as the previous names have done. Don’t aimlessly thank Benitez for the Academy. It wasn’t established by him, he simply bought a hundred young foreigners who in the majority haven’t made it and now we’re seeing the benefit of local youngsters (who wouldve made it anyway on recent viewings) being given the chance……. Which ge very rarely did (infact I can’t think of an example where he did give a ‘Flannigan’ a chance in a competitive game…… Maybe just Spearing in a few games???
I just hope Dalglish continues believing in the obvious local talent that exists. Dunne and the current crop can’t end up playing for Coventry and Leicester like the previous crop always seemed to end up doing.
YNWA
I believe he gave Stephen Darby a run out against real Madrid away in the champions league. Benitez simply did not have the luxery of being able to gamble with youth players. Kenny can do this because he’s Kenny and he’s trusted and it fits with the new ownership policy. Benitez was in when the two clowns were at the helm, he would have been out long before he was if he risked the youngsters and didn’t get results. So I guess what im saying is, im on the side of thanking Rafa,and at the same time believing everything is blossoming at the right time with the right man in charge to introduce these kids. YNWA
Rafa is king
It wasn’t just young players Rafa brought in. He was also instrumental in bringing Borrell and Segura, who have both instilled the “Barcelona” way of playing. A youth coach who worked at Barcelona’s academy said a few months back that the top two places to develop players were Barcelona and Liverpool.