Erik Lamela: Perhaps A Star of Liverpool’s Future?

To ensure a bright long term future for Liverpool Football Club, Fenway Sports Group are keen to make the club self-sustainable. As well as improving financial revenues, it also requires a good youth system where young players can be produced at a fraction of the cost of big money signings. Another aspect is a good scouting system to pick up on young players who could be bought for a fraction of their future value, and Liverpool’s Director of Football Damien Comolli has been tasked with this aim.

As well as spending big money on players such as Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll, another part of Comolli’s remit will be to find young stars whose value will increase instead of decrease over time. So it was with great interest this week that I saw us being linked with River Plate starlet Erik Lamela. Although there maybe nothing to the rumour, I believe Lamela is the sort of player that the Reds should be looking at if they are to stay true to FSG’s strategy.

The young Argentine was subject to interest from Barcelona at the age of just 12, and was actually offered £100,000 per year just to move to Spain. Lamela’s club River Plate however managed to keep hold of their young star, and he has progressed to become an important player for the club over the last six months. He made his debut against Tigre in the Clausura Championship back in 2009 but he has really come to prominence in the 2010/11 Apertura Championship, playing in the trequarista position behind a main striker.

At the start of the 2010/11 Apertura, River Plate were struggling at the bottom of the table. Despite the Buenos Aires side’s illustrious history in Argentina, they have come to rely on many young stars including Lamela, as well as left winger Roberto Pereyra and striker Rogelio Funes Mori. They went into the first Superclasico of the season against Boca Juniors as underdogs back in November, but he match showed everyone that Lamela could be a real talent for the future.