Liverpool have completed a deal to sign a teenage prospect from a fellow English club – although the player in question isn’t Romeo Lavia.
As reported by the Daily Mail, the Reds have swooped for Harvey Owen, a 14-year-old centre-back who arrives from Wolves in a cut-price deal costing a mere £800,000.
A fee for the defender was thought to have been agreed back in May, with the Merseyside club happy to pay the aforementioned sum in order to fend off competition for the talented youngster, who’ll now link up with LFC’s academy.
Liverpool will be delighted to secure the services of Owen, considering his massive potential and a cull of the youth ranks which has seen numerous academy players leave the club, including Elijah Gift and Kerron Samuels.
The 14-year-old already has a very high-profile admirer in a former Manchester City midfielder who lit up the Premier League during the 2010s.
Wolves academy coach Wes Hughes revealed last October that, following a match against Tottenham, Yaya Toure approached the teenage centre-back and told the youngster that he has ‘a lot of potential’ (Daily Mail).
It’ll obviously be a few years yet before Owen even come close to making a first-team appearance for Liverpool, but if he can make the right impression in the Reds’ underage ranks, his opportunity may well come further down the line.
In Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones and Ben Doak, he has a few fine examples of players he can strive to emulate in terms of making the step up from academy levels to the senior squad.
#Ep83 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones
Wow, comes to something when £800,000 for a 14 year old is “cut price”