Damien Comolli
Liverpool’s director of football has a brilliant record of identifying young talent for whatever club he has worked for, and in the past has unearthed talent such as Kolo Toure, Eboue, Clichy, Taarabt, Bale, Modric, Assou-Ekotto and others. Whilst at Liverpool there seems to have been a particular focus on not just young talent but young English talent such as Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing and he added these players to Liverpool’s then recent additions of Jonjo Shelvey (Charlton) and Raheem Sterling (QPR) who is supposed to be one of the brightest talents in English football. In fact they paid just under two million for Sterling when he was just fifteen. So, what all this tells us is that Liverpool are so desperate to build a base of young English talent that they are willing to pay large amounts of money for young players, even if they are a risk.
FIFA’s financial fair play rules
Another deciding factor in clubs’ recent attraction to younger and younger players is a result of FIFA’s financial fair play regulations that will soon be coming in to effect and so the appeal of younger cheaper players is much greater even if the prices are inflated, for the clubs it is far less of a risk.
Is this the right way to go?
Well, how can we be sure? Is it any more risky for Liverpool or Chelsea to pay two million pounds for a fourteen year old than it was for Chelsea to pay fifty million for Torres or Liverpool to pay thirty five million for Carroll? Some may see people paying millions for boys who haven’t even take their GCSEs as ridiculous but frankly I would rather have Ojo for his price tag than Carroll for his.
The article was written by Hamish McKay for FootballFancast.com. Make sure to check out the latest news, blogs and podcasts at FFC – ed.
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Liverpool spend their money wisely on players but the Blues just pay whatever price it takes to have their player. This is spoiling the market.
You ruin an insightful article with the final line. If Carroll ends up having a ten year career with us and becomes the next Shearer or Lineker than the 35 million gamble will in hindsight look like amazing business. You also answer some of your own questions in the article without seeming to notice. We paid nearly 2 million for a 15 year old which seems like its going to be really good business so why not 2 million for a 14 year old? Is there really that much difference? Also you point out damien’s successes so why not trust him? The whole article is written as “why are Liverpool and Chelsea being so silly with their money?” Theme when the question should be “who is this kid and what makes him so special to excite so many people?”