Heighway has a pop at Rafa

[tomasjj]

Lets not start having a go at him, the guy is entitled to his opinion after all the years of great service he has given to the club. Of course he is going to be very proud of his youth players, and eager to seem the progress.

Sound comment.
Although I have to agree with SouthAfricaRed in questioning why the players produced there haven't made it elsewhere.

[Reece]

Sound comment.
Although I have to agree with SouthAfricaRed in questioning why the players produced there haven't made it elsewhere.

I'm not saying he is right, just that he has earned the right to voice his opinion.

[tomasjj]

I'm not saying he is right, just that he has earned the right to voice his opinion.

Yes, and I agree with that.

[BubbaZanetti]

What's the Arsenal model? Their youth policy seems to be doing OK, I see a few of their ex-youth around the premier league and championship doing well.

[Imy]

Developing youngsters is very difficult, Heighway has produced the likes of Fowler, Owen, Gerrard, Macmanaman but in recent years almost none have come through.

Football now and especially in the Premiership is very international, Heighway's vision of just local lads is no longer viable.

Yes reserve team football is a joke, but the reason Rafa has the creme of the youngsters in the reserves is so that they aclimatise to the first team, expeience training at Melwood and with world class talent like Gerrard etc whom they can learn off. So that if/when the call for the 1st team does come they woudn't find the step up to steep.

Very rare is it to find someone like Owen, Richards (even fat arse rooney) who can get in to the 1st straight away, so it makes more sense to have the best youngsters at Melwood being assessed by the top bosses.

Steve Heighway a great LFC servant but maybe a bit of a dinosaur now!

[Resu]

Ultimately I think the reserve systems needs a radical shake up to make it more computative. Televise the games, make it another league with prize money, I don't know, but we should do something. I don't think incorporating them into the current league is a good idea though because it throws up too many complications. Stick them in the bottom league and the standard won't be good enough, stick them in a higher league and that is unfair on the clubs below them, and what happens when two teams from the same club draw each other in a cup competition or end up in the same league? It would all lead to madness, I tells ya....

This is done in many other leagues, but it`s not without problems.
The way it works in Norway:
-The reserve team can`t be higher than third tier.
-First and reserve team can`t be in the same division. If the first team gets relegated to the same division as the reserve team the reserves gets relegated as well.

[RedProf]

A lot of what SH says is great and all that, but a bit sentimental. I love the idea of Liverpool lads putting in that extra bit of effort/desire in a CL Final to win it for the club. But times have moved on - if we dont pick up the best youth from around the world, others will do, so ultimately we will always be playing 2nd best to the Utds/Chelseas of this world. With SH's policies, we're always giving ourselves a handicap right from the off.

[Jazzmaster]

Arsenal will be the proof of the pudding in a few years - they seem to develop new talent at will, whereas our own system leaves players in no man's land, somewhere between reserve and first team football. Benitez, and the rest of us, can see the future promise of the arsenal system, and is therefore looking ahead to create a similar future for LFC, while heighway is licking his wounds somewhat,as without doubt he has been a great servant to the club, but his ethos and methods have become outdated.

[tomasjj]

Arse mostly buy the youngsters from other clubs. They don't develop jack **** themselves.

[Jazzmaster]

Arse mostly buy the youngsters from other clubs. They don't develop jack **** themselves.

No, but they do integrate young talent into the first team.

[tomasjj]

No, but they do integrate young talent into the first team.

Better than us anyway.

[Biff]

Lets not start having a go at him, the guy is entitled to his opinion after all the years of great service he has given to the club. Of course he is going to be very proud of his youth players, and eager to seem the progress.

I just find it rather contradictory that in the two articles he states how he believes himself to be the best coach for the 17/18 yr olds at the club, was a bit of an unofficial leader during Paisley's early years but doesn't like to crow about it.

He was an excellent winger for us and has been a great servant to the club but if he's so steeped in the Liverpool tradition and way of doing things why is he washing his dirty linen in public?

[dww]

I think he is both angry at being forced out and genuinely passionate about youth development and believes things are being done wrongly. It's not very pleasant but if he really thinks damage might be done to the progress of young players then he is probably right to speak out.

[Mumsafan]

I loved Heighway as a Player, but his record of players making it out of his Academy, is not good.

Even if the managers are to blame as he claims, Why have so few of his graduates made it anywhere?

Yeah he's really annoyed me with all this bitter like talk. He's been there 19 years and in that time we've had 5 players - Fowler, Owen, Gerrard, Carra and Macca, while the Mancs have been churning em out right left and centre! I think I'm with Rafa on this one.