According to the Bradford Telegraph and Argus, Liverpool are poised to sign 14 year old Callum Pilkington from Bradford City. He will follow in the footsteps of Andre Wisdom who made a similar move a couple of years ago. According to the paper, there will be an initital fee paid for the youngster, and like Wisdom, there will be further add-on payments as Pilkington makes his way through our youth setup. The Bantams’ youth development officer Peter Horne talked about the youngster:
“He’s always been bigger than the rest of the group. Callum’s a powerful and strong lad. He had a trial period early on at another Premier League club but because we’ve got a good relationship with the lads at Liverpool, they took a look and decided to sign him. There are no promises whether he’ll make it in the future but we wish him all the best.”
The signing of another young English player demonstrates Liverpool’s ambitions to improve the youth setup. Their good relationships with teams such as Bradford City, Charlton Athletic and Swindon Town have brought the likes of Andre Wisdom, Jonjo Shelvey and Jamie Stephens to Anfield in recent times, and let’s hope it continues.
Im a Liverpool fan but born n bred in Bradford, i hope its a good deal for both clubs and Bradford City get what the money they rightly deserve with the the player development they have done to this lad. Good luck to both clubs in the future and continue with the good relationship between both clubs.
Another young British player to sacrifice….pity. Do you think he can make it to the first team? Please look at Benitez’s record. Until today, first eleven none of them come from the youth team. Don’t argue with me the existing British players. None of them brought in by Benitez.
phillip
stop talk s***e mate, no english players bought by Benitez? who signed GJ last year? anyway, goodluck to this young lad hopefully he turns out to be another Torres in about 6yrs time.
thats another thing that some idiotic fans seem to forget, these kids being brought in are for the future not the 1st team with the exception of Shelvey (hopefully), you can’t expect to see Sterling, for instance, in the 1st team within the next 2-3yrs but some of you still complain that the youngsters aren’t being given a chance when this season alone we saw; Pacheco, Ayala, Darby, Spearing, Kelly, Ecclestone and 16yr old Robinson in the 1st team and still “Rafa doesn’t give youngsters a chance”, get a grip and support the team and manager whole heartedly after all we always sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.
Philip, you are to an extent a non existant point. There are plenty of youths on the fringes or in the squad. Insua and Ngog and pacheco have spent time in the reserves, spearing, kelly, martins but to name a few who have been given chances. Rafa had to rebuild the first team and since his new contract (12 months ago) he has concentrated on the youth set up, he has made massive strides in 12 months, he has in the last month bought Jojo (first team fringe) bid for wilson (scots often do well at Liverpool) etc.
Clearly he is trying to buy young people who understand what liverpool is all about. He is clearly also increasing the number of home grown-Johnson! But when Westham want £18 mil for Carlton cole it’s not always easy to buy British talent!
there is youth being given a chance, if fans can not see that then go and support another club, it is clear that we have brought for very little money lots of young player into the club, the most we have paid for a young player is jonjo from charlton, if one or even just 2 young players work out and make the first team and even the ones that do not make it or sold for a profit, its not costing the club anything? wake up and look at what rafa is trying to do on peanuts, but the bottom line is the first team needs to be winning and staying in the top 4, for many reasons that only a mug would need me to explain! we need huge investment and we need 4 top class pros and a couple of free deals to add to the team.
lahm
mata
turan
milito – llorente