The futures bright, the future is Red

[Joe King]

RAFA: CUP SHOWS FUTURE IS BRIGHT

Rafa Benitez claims victory in the Dallas Cup is yet another indicator that Liverpool's future is in safe hands.

Gary Ablett's reserves returned from the US undefeated having scored 26 goals, with just three conceded at the other end.

Benitez, who won the Dallas Cup during his time as Real Madrid youth coach, said: "It's a competition I won years ago. It's a nice competition and it's always nice to see the young players winning trophies.

"The priority is to produce players for the first-team in the future but, in the meantime, any silverware is positive.

"Gary Ablett is doing a good job. All the staff are doing fantastically well with the young players. They are top of the league and it looks good for the future.

"I've said a lot of times that the chief scout, Eduardo Macia, and all the other English and foreign scouts, are working really hard to find young players. We are signing really good players that are giving us something in the present and will also give us something in the future in the first team."

The Dallas triumph was secured with a 3-0 victory over Mexican side Tigres in Sunday's final, after which Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks presented the trophy to skipper Stephen Darby.

Next up for the reserves is the mini-derby on Tuesday.

[MattB]

Not sure if this has been posted before. Quite interesting I thought...

http://www.livevideo.com/video/6E149E0E453649B686F08632CB72DCEC/kop-10-kids-to-watch-2008.aspx

It's about the top ten Kop kids to watch in 2008...

[dww]

I think we need to see some of this investment pay of in the new season - hopefully the added places on the bench will encourage Benitez to put some of the young attacking talent in the substitutes.

I can't see how the likes of Nemeth, Bruna, Pacheco etc. can progress without games. I would set up a link with either Norwich or Swansea (assuming Championship football for both) next season. We have players like El Zhar who really are of an age now where it is make or break but I don't see them displacing the likes of Yossi, Pennant etc without some experience.

[red g]

I think we need to see some of this investment pay of in the new season - hopefully the added places on the bench will encourage Benitez to put some of the young attacking talent in the substitutes.

I can't see how the likes of Nemeth, Bruna, Pacheco etc. can progress without games. I would set up a link with either Norwich or Swansea (assuming Championship football for both) next season. We have players like El Zhar who really are of an age now where it is make or break but I don't see them displacing the likes of Yossi, Pennant etc without some experience.

I would have liked to see the likes of nemeth and a couple of the others gone on loan till the end of the season with championship clubs.......i think there trannsfer deadline must be finished today

[dww]

I would have liked to see the likes of nemeth and a couple of the others gone on loan till the end of the season with championship clubs.......i think there trannsfer deadline must be finished today

I think other than relegation threatened clubs all Championship clubs prefer to have a settled team from January onwards. As has been shown with Hobbs and Hammil a relegation battle is often a bad place to blood young players in the Championship where the bottom half is all about the fight traditionally and so often players of quality are left out to make way for old warhorses.

At the start of the season next year we need to get players to teams with managers capable of developing and teams that will be playing football and aiming for the top half of that division. The last of these criteria is pretty weak as nearly all teams believe that at the start of the season as it is a very tight division. However there are only a few good coaches and several of those look like they will come up next year to the PL which is why I picked out the teams I did.

[MattB]

Thing is though. Did Owen, Fowler, Gerrard, Carragher et al (in other words the youth players that made it) go out on loan?

I always saw sending a youth player out on loan as a bit of a last chance saloon (or even a shop window). Surely if they are obviously good enough it is better to keep them around, playing together and learning 'the Liverpool way' and then ease them into the first team gradually?

[dww]

Thing is though. Did Owen, Fowler, Gerrard, Carragher et al (in other words the youth players that made it) go out on loan?

I always saw sending a youth player out on loan as a bit of a last chance saloon (or even a shop window). Surely if they are obviously good enough it is better to keep them around, playing together and learning 'the Liverpool way' and then ease them into the first team gradually?

I see what you are saying but people develop at different times and it depends a lot on the stage of development of the team. For example I think it would be hard for someone who like Carra took time to develop to break into our team now, but a loan would give him the chance. Players like Ferdinand (went to Bournemouth) and Beckham (didn't play much but says he learned a lot about what it takes to make it at Preston) both took a lot from loan deals - and Joe Cole and Frank Lampard developed a lot at West Ham where chances are easier to come by. Each player has a different development cycle and a combination of loans and bench/substitute/league cup appearances for the first team has to be judged on an individual basis. If a player is already good enough and like Owen or Gerrard mentally ready for the pressure of playing for a big team at a young age then thats great but that will always be the exception and our production line needs to take that into account.

The other advantage is like Arsenal with Bendner, Larsson and Muamba a loan can show you how players develop at low risk while increasing their value in the market which is a added benefit.

On the flip side there are definite advantages to having young defensive players in the reserve ranks long enough to learn instinctive zonal marking so they can be deployed more easily in the first team.

[Woobus]

I think other than relegation threatened clubs all Championship clubs prefer to have a settled team from January onwards. As has been shown with Hobbs and Hammil a relegation battle is often a bad place to blood young players in the Championship where the bottom half is all about the fight traditionally and so often players of quality are left out to make way for old warhorses.

Anyword on how Hamill is doing this year, follow Scottish football a bit and he was great last year. Had big hopes for him but havent heard to much from him this year.

[dww]

Anyword on how Hamill is doing this year, follow Scottish football a bit and he was great last year. Had big hopes for him but havent heard to much from him this year.

He hasn't had that many chances and of late he has barely played. He wasn't even on the bench until the last game under the new management.

[Shaggy]

Notice Hobbs hasn't even been on the bench for the last one or two Scunny games.

[dww]

Notice Hobbs hasn't even been on the bench for the last one or two Scunny games.

I think both Hammil and Hobbs loans were gambles that failed to pay off. Of all the managers in the relegation battle in the Championship only Roeder and Di Canio have tried to play football and had faith in young players ability (they have also been the most successful at improving their teams positions although in the latter case big sacks of cash may also have played a part). We couldn't have told about Southampton as they started the season with Burley in charge and despite the players they sold a seemingly half decent squad, Scunthorpe though in hindsight was always a dodgy call.

[red g]

didnt rafa try and put a clause in about playing time? or am i dreaming it?

[dww]

didnt rafa try and put a clause in about playing time? or am i dreaming it?

No idea about either of these loans but he definitely did so when we loaned out Mellor and said that it had been a problem in the past which is why he was doing it. We got money if the player didn't play was the way it worked. I think it unlikely we would have been able to get those sort of assurances from Scunthorpe, maybe we could have with Southampton.