Purchasing promising "youth"....

[red g]

Ryan Flynn

[JPK]

Take Barca for example.Pacheco was bought from Malaga at 13,Messi from Argentina at the same age,De los Santos from Mexico/Brazil,Krkic I think is Spanish but they could have bought him too.There strategy was to buy the hottest young talent around and blood them when they are ready.
It is the way forward.We still need 4or5 key players for the first team right now as most will agree.The kids are a bonus for the time being if they break through.

[Morph]

el zhar, he was 19/20 when we signed him, not sure if that fits in your list

[red g]

...how many players, say 18 or under, have we purchased in the last 10 years that have matured into quality assets?
I know that signing youth is deemed to be a clever/respectable way of doing things but is it really worth it?

list of players that made it to from the youth set up.

1980s
Gary Ablett
Mike Marsh
Steve Staunton
Ronnie Whelan

1990s
Jamie Carragher
Robbie Fowler
Steven Gerrard
Dominic Matteo
Steve McManaman
Michael Owen
David Thompson
Stephen Wright

2000s
Neil Mellor
Stephen Warnock


I think our youth set up defintely needs the overhaul !!!!!

[red g]

Alexander Kacaniklic

[saveferris]

David Martin the keeper

[DannyMan2006]

Dean Bouzanis, ozzy keeper.

[peekay]

I dont think Rafa is expecting to field a first team consisting entirely of kids from the acedemy in five years.But if we could have academy players who are of premiership standard then it would be a big plus for us in many ways.

We can then loan them out to other teams and raise money by selling them.Of the top of my head Arsenal raised 2 million for muamba,2 from stokes.These can be important additions to our transfer kitty.And if we are spunking money on the academy let us train kids who have the ability to make it into the championship atleast so that we can get a decent return.Second, if some of them go on to become squad players for us then that would again save us a lot of money which we can use to buy quality players.

Apart from the above two, if we can get a superb player coming through our academy, an important first team player, every 3-4 years then it would be a jackpot. I think with the extra cost of the stadium loans etc, Rafa is trying to safeguard our future by establishing a top quality academy and scouting system - like the barca and sevilla one.A place where youngsters all over the world would like to join.

EDIT:That better)

[Yozza]

****in' hell peekay lad - ever heard of paragraphs?

Hit the return key once in a while...

[Sir Bob]

list of players that made it to from the youth set up.

1980s
Gary Ablett
Mike Marsh
Steve Staunton
Ronnie Whelan

1990s
Jamie Carragher
Robbie Fowler
Steven Gerrard
Dominic Matteo
Steve McManaman
Michael Owen
David Thompson
Stephen Wright

2000s
Neil Mellor
Stephen Warnock


I think our youth set up defintely needs the overhaul !!!!!

I'm not sure I agree. Our 1990's group was truely outstanding by any standards. For me it even surpassess the Mancs Beckham, Nevilles, butt & Scholes era.

Since then we've been disappointing but if you compare our record with any other club i'd be suprised to find many better.

[DannyMan2006]

I'm not sure I agree. Our 1990's group was truely outstanding by any standards. For me it even surpassess the Mancs Beckham, Nevilles, butt & Scholes era.

Since then we've been disappointing but if you compare our record with any other club i'd be suprised to find many better.

They also had Giggs and Sharpe amongst others in the 90's though.

We also had the mighty Don Hutchinson though

I actually think the biggest problem is that we spent a shed load of cash on the academy and since then have produced no one of note.

[peekay]

I'm not sure I agree. Our 1990's group was truely outstanding by any standards. For me it even surpassess the Mancs Beckham, Nevilles, butt & Scholes era.

Since then we've been disappointing but if you compare our record with any other club i'd be suprised to find many better.

Boro seem to be doing very well. They may not have produced any international class players but they are producing a decent crop of players who can do a job in the premiership. If we can match that, I think we will be doing a good job, as we can always raise money by selling them to other clubs or bedding them in as squad players.

[bobbyfallon]

****in' hell peekay lad - ever heard of paragraphs?

Hit the return key once in a while...

[Sir Bob]

Since GH 1st came to LFC we must have bought 30 or 40 young promising players. How many of these have had an impact, to my mind just the1 and he's probably the most derided LFC player of recent years.





























Take a bow Djimi Traore.

[The incredible igor]

****in' hell peekay lad - ever heard of paragraphs?

Hit the return key once in a while...

i gave up reading it for just that reason