THERE has been much talk over the last couple of years regarding the success of the young players at Liverpool FC who have come through the Academy.
In the 20 years prior, arguably longer, our academy only sporadically produced players capable of challenging for positions in the first team. Many of these players, like Gerrard, Owen, McManaman or Fowler, were of such outstanding quality as young players they would have come through anyway and at any club they were at. Such players still need careful coaching and management at youth level, but everyone knows they are going to make it, so long as they maintain their professionalism.
It’s much rarer for a young player like Jamie Carragher to succeed, lacking in technical ability and star quality as a youngster, but not lacking in determination, the young Carra needed the support of good coaches more than the likes of the naturally gifted Fowler or Gerrard. However for a long time there had been no group of youngsters coming through and it hasn’t been consistent. The likes of Dominic Matteo, Mike Marsh, David Thompson and Stephen Wright didn’t quite fulfil their potential at LFC.
No one is expecting our coaches and youth recruitment team to produce a group as good as Man United’s Class of 92, or the broader Fergie’s Fledglings, that included the Neville brothers, Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Butt or even Lee Sharpe. However our academy was the laughing stock of other big teams in the Premier League and abroad for a long time.
Changes began initially with Gerard Houllier, who added another level of professionalism, organisation and structure to our academy and improved the foreign scouting department significantly. The Frenchman was the key force behind what is now the excellent facilities our young players benefit from. While the actual results of the early youth recruitment process was not so successful, up to this point Liverpool were barely aware of who the best young talents were outside of the British Isles. The heralded signings of Sinama Pongolle (who went on to have some good cameos for LFC and and a solid career in La Liga) and Anthony Le Tallec (who unfortunately had more ego than dedication) didn’t work out, as Houllier perpetually struggled to work effectively with the then Head of Academy, and Liverpool legend, Steve Heighway.
Things really began to change under Rafa. Frustrated that there seemed to be no young talents coming through the youth ranks since Houllier blooded Gerrard and Carragher, the Spaniard was keen to make further improvements. Rafa eventually won his contest with Steve Heighway, who moved on from the club, and after initially bringing in former Bolton Wanderers General Manager, and Liverpool fan, Frank McParland to analyse Liverpool’s youth coaching, Rafa hired him full time in 2009 to head up the Academy. He also made the absolutely critical and envied signings of Pep Segura and Rodolfo Borrell from Barcelona. Only Rafa, with his strong reputation and connections in Spain, could have pulled off such a coup.
The three went about their work diligently, targeting technical players with tactical awareness and implementing better coaching practises consistent throughout all levels of the academy to help ensure the players, all the way from the juniors, were playing football the right way, with the ball as the centre of their work. While Rafa knew it would take time for the results to bear fruit, and although he did not gain the benefit of these young players during his reign, he set in place an outstanding system and structure to improve us in the future.
This led to us signing top young players at home and abroad and better preparing our local lads for the step up to the first team. Rather than being ridiculed our academy began to be praised. In this period we produced Martin Kelly, Andre Wisdom, Raheem Sterling, Suso, Jon Flanagan, Jack Robinson, Connor Coady, Jordan Ibe, Jerome Sinclair and a lot of other youngsters, e.g. Jordan Rossiter, at even younger age groups who have a real chance of making it in the first team. 2 years after Rafa’s changes the academy, at it’s various levels, went from having 2 to 50 youth international players!
Pep Guardiola, while he was still at Barcelona in June 2011, even made a point of praising Liverpool’s academy, over and above any others in world football.
“The academy of the Liverpool is the only one that can compare to La Masia of Barcelona FC.” Guardiola said. “If Liverpool can manage those lads in the academy, then maybe 20 star players can arrive from that academy”.
Rafa then further strengthened the academy by bringing back the King. Kenny Dalglish had a focus in supporting the academy and he became close to all age groups and worked very well with McParland and Borrell.
Brendan Rodgers has been the beneficiary of all the excellent work that Rafa did in bringing in quality coaches to ‘fix’ and improve the academy. Under Kenny’s short managerial reign the youngsters weren’t quite ready to be put in, even though, when he could, Kenny did give debuts to the likes of Sterling and Flanagan.
In my view Rodgers has taken too much credit for the development of these young players, without giving enough credit to the outstanding work of the academy team Rafa put in place who are now no longer there. It is arguable whether Brendan has managed these youngsters well or not. I think he has shown confidence in them in numerous situations, but has also made mistakes with their development.
Bringing on Suso against Man United when we were down to 10 men was an excellent decision and I think, on the whole, he has managed the young Spaniard well. Raheem Sterling, in my view, was overplayed to exhaustion in the first half of last season, then suffered niggling injuries and a dip in form in the second half of last season as a result. He has been underused this season and from being England’s best young hope, his development has somewhat stalled. Discussing the progress of our present crop of young players is a topic for another day, but that we have so many talented youngsters to talk of (e.g. I recently wrote an article on how Suso is lighting up Almeria in La Liga) is down to the men who have been unceremoniously sacked.
The timing of this decision seems rather baffling, 11 games into the season. And the truth behind the departure of McParland and Borrell (Pep Segura left in Sep 2012 when he wasn’t able to get agreement from the board on a wider remit in his work) will surely come out eventually. It’s possible that cost control was part of the reason McParland left alongside possible duplication of workload, but it is still amazing that Borrell, who is highly respected by all the players he coached, was also dispensed with after he was only recently promoted to Head of Technical Development at the academy.
These changes would never have happened without the full agreement of Brendan Rodgers. From a footballing perspective he is the instigator of key decisions at Liverpool and if he is not wholly responsible, he certainly would be responsible in large part. In my view, it seems likely Rodgers wanted more control over the academy, and to have that power has been in the main part responsible for sacking two people who have made massive improvements in the Academy and made it one of the best in the world.
Brendan Rodgers recently said in an interview he knew all about running an Academy as he worked at the Academy in Reading. Well I guess we’re in safe hands then.
Needless to say. I’m gutted.
You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/
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Someone I think is over-reaching themselves and attempting to take on more than one man can handle. We are in for a big fall !
It’s an absolute disgrace . This is Rodgers acting the big ‘i am ‘ …..these two guys are highly sought after top top coaches.
If ever proof was needed that Rodgers is just a small little man way out of his depth…this is it .
Good article BTW
Thanks, I’m extra worried as Kenny surely should have stuck up for frank ad Rodolfo. That they still lost their jobs with Kenny on the board means that either Kenny’s opinion holds no sway or he agreed with the decision to sack them. I’m not sure which is worse.
I think Kennys role is simply ambassadorial . He has no say on anything important .
Yeah, sadly I think you’re right. It seems a crying shame to waste his football knowledge though. Even if Rodgers ensures he’s got nothing to do with the first team, his knowledge of the youngsters at the academy, and indeed the workings of McParland and Borrell, is superior to Rodgers’. Not only because Kenny understands football better, but because he engaged personally with the kids much more than Rodgers. Kenny knows the names of the Under 10s, I doubt Rodgers does.
I really hoped Rodgers would have been gone before he was able to do irreversible damage to our club ….now it is too late.
We had solid foundations at last….a top Academy filled with excellent coaches and the best crop of youth Liverpool has ever had.
Yes Rodgers has brought in coutinho + sturridge…but they are massively outnumbered by your Allen Borini and aspas types. Added to that top players like Reina are being replaced by cheaper ones…I expect Agger is next for the boot. And excellent younger talents like Morgan Robinson Coady are being ignored.
Fans have been easily distracted by a decent start to the season. But this whole club is going to need total re-construction by the time Rodgers is gone . Who the hell is going to clean up this mess ?
HALF EMPTY KINDA FELLA AREN’T YA
Rumour has it that 2 scouts who worked for Rodgers at Swansea are in line for the jobs, there CV was like Brendans, not much work experience , will work cheaply and wont rock the boat, so it looks like its there’s then. Bu the other rumour is that Brendan is thinking about bringing his mate Steve Kean in from the cold. You heard it here first.
Jobs for the boys. See Pascoe !
I hope if we do get someone in it is someone with experience and authority who can challenge Rodgers when he wants to make stupid signings like Allen or Borini (even if they do come hood both were massively overpriced and have done nothing for 2 years)
I think the reason mcparland /borrell were sacked is that they had experience and authority. Rodgers fears that .
The 2 men have been great. But for a club to move forward, it is about a synchronized system. So, it is not about the 2 men nor about BR. JH knows what it takes to fine tuning for success. We have to wait and seen.
There are obviously some things going on in the club that we don’t yet know about, but will slowly become clear when McParland or Borrell get their next job and the media ask them about what happened. I doubt anyone inside Liverpool will mention anything at all. However interms of this synchronised system you mention, that’s what McParland and Borrell have implemented. The players that the Academy has been trying to produce since Rafa took over are exactly the type that Rodgers has always said he craved. It WAS synchronised. Now it’s messed up and I, and many fans, are worried it will get irreversibly screwed up for the future.
Unless you are the real “Stevie G ” you are making assumptions without knowing the facts.
Lets wait until the full facts are known, before we start slagging off someone who has helped guide us to second in the Premier League and imo is not doing too bad a job.
Not assumptions . Its common knowledge around the city /club
This is what happens when the 2 guys running your Academy have more experience than your team manager , it was always going to happen after all they are Rafas & Kennys men. What we should all be worried about is that we now have an inexperienced CEO in Ian Ayre , an inexperienced manager in Rodgers and clueless owners . The next few months will be interesting.
Well said. Ian Ayre is actually too inexperienced to be a CEO, hence he’s actually an MD.
all of rafas excellent work is being undone . the two lads have turned our academy into one of the best in the world.
now what ? rodgers fills the positions with more of his mates . alex inglethorpe and colin pascoe are bad enough .
im agreement with article , this is a disgrace and what amess we are going to be in by the time rodgers is finished.
Here, here. Truly, what on earth does Colin Pascoe actually know? Whenever he speaks at interviews he’s full of cliches and talks a lot without saying anything. I’m worried though that Rodgers will bring in more like him.
So, after going through a barren 10 years or so, we produce, Kelly, Stirling, Suso, Flanagan 5 years after a complete overhaul … Coincidence? Not really. Smart work went on. I guess BR has experience from the powerhouse that is the reading academy. An absolute joke .
We had a lucky start to the season and Rogers must feel like the second coming of Shankly.
it’s very wrong maybe even spiteful, he has treated young Texiera disgracefully, probably because he was mcparlands future star. he will be a star wherever he is – it should be at liverpool, he is better than many others who have had a chance in the first team.
Texeira is a wonderful talent and would actually have been a better fit for the attacking midfield role than Allen against Everton (if the the young Porteguese had been managed properly with earlier opportunities to play).
Texiera is like Suso only better and with an end product – he scores goals he makes goals – he needs his confidence building (not in his ability) but of being wanted, Rodgers has done exactly the opposite undermining the lad – disgraceful.
He has made a big mistake also his buys were awful (who he knew) – the good buys came after the scouting vetting system changed.that said I hope he tays as that will mean we hav success and lfc comes first.
how can you say texeira has been mistreated when he was not playing for 6 months last season because of a back injury? texiera has been getting back into form and I wouldn’t be surprised to see suso, him and coutinho all playing and rotating in 2014. our squad is pretty deep, but we still don’t want to rely on youth players for the premier league. once the fa cup rolls around, we will see much more of our youth and once we get european football, the youth will exclusive be blooded in fa cup and carling cup games. get a grip, be patient and wait what happens you *
I agree it’s a travesty . I honestly believe Liverpool would be better served retaining Rudolfo and Frank , and getting rid of Rodgers. Our future looks grim .
This is bad news for Lpool fc
Are you lads taking the complete *? Let me get this straight you wany Rodgers sacked because of a decision to change the academy set up? Last year it was he hasn’t improved us when he actually did, now this year we are at the right end of the table playing positive attacking football n now you want him gone because of a behind the scenes decision that nobody on here has a clue about what actually went on? Get a life boys yees are an embarrassment!
People want Rodgers sacked cos he’s a sh it second rate manager with an ego bigger than his cv.
Another dope getting fooled by a fairly good start . Try and see the bigger picture
Sadly, you are spot on. Easy start but still messed up from winning positions. Appologists keep using Sturidge , coutinho as shinning examples of his know how in the market…. But ignore Allen, Borrini, asaidi, sahin, aspas… And keeo quoting tge excellent start but ignore the fact the we are 5 points from 10’th and havent played spurs, chelsea, city! Rogers is a running joke
personally i don’t think any of the current crop of youngsters can be called a success or have made the break through, they have it all to prove, same went for borell and mcpharland, while they were in charge how many players have they brought through the ranks and play most weeks like stevie, carra, or owen, fowler, etc, none,. i wouildnt say they were particularly successful either
Folks coming on here slagging off B.R.i think he is getting there,we are in a great position playing great attacking football,he seems to have an eye for a younger player & is not afraid to give them a go.Rome wasn,t built in a day,Time & Patience etc,No coach/Manager is going to be an overnight sucess,He has instilled a winning mentality in this Squad & they are enjoying their football.Lets give it time & see.