Ian St John has come out and criticised the ten years of foreign management that he believes has transformed the club beyond recognition. The Liverpool legend believes that for such dramatic changes to the backroom staff, there should have been a great deal more success than just the Champions League triumph of 2005. St John told BBC Radio Merseyside that it maybe was time to return to the club’s British roots:
“Personally I hope we get a British manager. We’ve had over 10 years of foreign managers. Take away the night in Istanbul and the whole club seems to have changed. The staff we’ve got now, one minute it was all Frenchmen, the next minute all Spaniards. I mean this is Liverpool Football Club. I thought earlier in the season when Rafa changed the academy staff, I thought that was shocking. The academy boys had been there for years turning out players like Gerrard and Carragher and winning the (FA Youth) cup a couple of times. And for them to lose their jobs, and for what? I thought that was shocking, and then to get an influx of Spaniards coming in, I thought it was a big mistake and it was something that was happening at the club that shouldn’t have happened.”
So does St John have at point about our identity? Has the spirit of the bootroom and passion to play for Liverpool gone away under foreign management in recent years? It’s difficult to say in some respects because the English game has been globalised to such an extent in recent times that this was inevitably going to happpen. Even Rafa recognised as much with his youth policy which St John much criticised. The aim that Benitez and the Spanish coaches Rodolfo Borrell and Pep Segura had was to develop players with a “passion” for the football club. Rather than relying on poaching youngsters from abroad, the aim was to develop a youth academy similar to Barcelona’s where Borrell and Segura originated, developing a crop of local youngsters who want to play for the club for the rest of their careers.
How the Barca academy works is typified by the contrasting attitudes of Lionel Messi and Cesc Fabregas. Both developed their skills at Barca’s La Masia academy, Messi came from a young age from Argentina to play for Barca while Fabregas left the club after being poached by Arsenal. While Messi wants to stay at the club for the rest of his career rather than returning to Argentina, Fabregas clearly has the desire to return to Spain. Why is Cesc not as loyal as Messi? Because Barca trained them both in the ways of Barca, and while one wants to stay, the other wants to return there. The same sort of thing was hopefully going to take place at Liverpool, and this is why I disagree with St John on the changing of the academy staff. For the best part of ten years, the Academy had only produced one player of any note, Stephen Warnock, and it was time for a change.
Part of this new approach was to bring in young English players to kick start this process of club indoctrination. Both Jonjo Shelvey and Raheem Sterling reportedly rejected bigger offers from other clubs to join the Reds, and these sort of players are seen as the way forward for the club. How much this was motivated by the Premier League quota system being established or by a genuine belief that that the team would be improved by more local talent is open to interpretation, but I believe the continual involvement of both Borrell and Segura is crucial for this process to continue. One of the best things a new manager could do is to convince them both to stay and continue with their long term project. Otherwise we may go back to square one and revert to poaching foreign youngsters. Then the club would truly be losing its identity.
Certainly the loss of the traditional Liverpool bootroom will lead to a certain extent a change of identity for the football club but such a thing is inevitable in any club these days as coaches and players come from all around the world to play in the world’s richest league. As long as the coaches and players understand the Liverpool Way and have that “passion,” then we shouldn’t ask for anything else, and any players who do not share this passion and loyalty to the club should, as Jamie Carragher put it, just leave. When going through a difficult spell in the club’s history, it is time for the team and staff to come together, the only way this can happen is through commitment to the club rather than wanting out.
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Yes, of course: plenty of Benitez’ pretorian in the Accademy Staff, plenty of spanish plyrs in senior team, plenty of foreigners plyrs in U18’s & reserves..
What’s the prize for LFC at the end of the day?
Not at young talent gets through the ranks, not a local lad in first team.
We’re talking about LFC.
I’m not a racist, but We’re talking about Liverpool FC, a club with a strong british identity and with a traditional way of football.
Yes’, If You look at the state of the CLub, Ian is surely right.
Time to re-install good old Liverpool’s way, good old mighty boot room and I’m sure that the majority of fans, They are totally agree with Ian.
Much respect for plyrs like Fernando Torres or Pepe Reina: wc players are always welcome to Liverpool Football Club, but I think thath Insua & N’gog for example They are not players Who match the high standards demanded by Liverpool Football CLub.
Martin Kelly & Nathan Ecclestone are largely stronger than Insua & N’gog.
Yeah lets look back to the past. Mabye we should let teh boys go out after every game and get bevvied up just like the old days. Hell it worked back then surely it will work now.
Ian St John is a xenophbic idiot who would not see a world class manager if one got up and kicked him in the nads.
No lets just get a british manager like good old Woy in, everybody likes him and his biggest selling point is that he “nearly” won the Europa with Fulham just what we need get rid of the foreign multi titl winning, CL and Uefa cup winner and get a manager who nearly won the inaugural Europa league.
I despair I really do
Rick, Kelly plays in a diffrent position and N’gog is miles better than Eccleston at this stage. Now potentially he may get better but at the moment there is a gulf of class between them
The academy going to take a few years before it can produce players for the first team. At least there are several of them getting their chance last season. They need to be integrated into the squad carefully cause the level of expectation is high. Look at Insua and N’gog they’re in the first team because we lack covers. And yet they keep getting labeled as not good enough. They’re still learning their trade so back off and give them support.
Egg, Can You explain me why Blackburn & Manchester United tried to sign Nathan Ecclestone at the back of Rafa?
It’s not a question of racism: Why An Accademy Football famous for his young talents over the decades, should change methods & staff?
Rafa has totally overhauled Accademy, and which has been the results during Rafa’s reign?
Club has changed, and too many fans has changed: Liverpool’s history of triumph founded on great british managers and No-one of these great man were a manager with an international pedigree or CV.
Now it appears vital for LFC to find a manager with an international profile…
Can You remind me the CV of Bill Shankley before his arrive at Anfield??
Let’s not forget the British men that took club backwards in the first place. Souness, Parry and David Moores. They were neck-and-neck with United when the PL came about and through ineptitude on and off the pitch, they put the club back miles.
It is said that top players may not be the most intelligent or even average intelligence ones. St John’s is a perfect example of sports excellence having no relationship to general IQ. I hate the idea of talking about nationalities. Ask this moron, who is currently managing the English national team? A British manager? Many were tried and delivered nothing. Even the coach of England’s cricket team is from Zimbabwe. People like St. Johns Deadwood would do best to leave the club alone and let it move forward. This nationality talk suits the Talibans, not modern day football clubs. Why not have English players only? Get rid of Torres, Mascharano, Reina, etc. Total rubbish.
Hodgeson who nearly won the Europa Cup and managed to relegate Blackburn to replace the man who won the La Liga Twice against Barca and Real, went to 3 Champions League Finals, won 1 and actually won the Uefa Cup. Also got us ranked No1 in Europe. This will happen because Roy had 1 good season and Rafa had 1 bad season. And they say football fans are fickle.
My answer : English national football team is currently managed by an Italian.
So all english manager are stupid?
NBo Top Clubs concede a proper chance to english managers.
So I want to say how many people appears so sure with no facts in their hands to justify their opinions.
I have the facts on my side: Shanly, Paisley, Fagan, Dalglish, Roy Evans..
Souness? Now We must establish a general rule against british manager only because one man failed…
C’mon mates, it’s simply fool..
10 yrs of foreign reign, and apart from several specific season, Club never reached comparable achievement under french- spanish reign.
Fact.
On Jack: I should suggest you to study international career of Roy Hodgson, from the beginning to the end, instead of talking in an approximately way..
Roy Evans! Don’t make me laugh, the guy shouls of been sacked the day he hauled Barnes off against Man U when he was having his best games in a long time. For those who don’t remember it’s April 1997, a majority of Liverpool fans (myself included) are more than fed up of Evans playing Barnes who wasn’t playing great. Man U come to Anfield in a game we need to win to have a chance of winning the title and Roy plays one up front! We go one down but Barnes equalises and is having a stormer but we let two more in and at 1-3 the title is over, so Evans takes Barnes off in a ‘its not my fault gesture’ it was here’s your sacrificial lamb. I’d never trust someone who does that so publicly. We get the best man for the job END OF If he’s English grand, if he’s apanese grand. Finally if St.John is so anti-foreigner f**k off back to Scotland you won nowt in your mangerial snake in the grass
Glass Beach: Who would have ever thought? Who would have conceived that what was discarded as trash, what was useless in the eyes of the world, what was so varied in shape, size, texture, and background, could come together to be?