Youth development and instant success: Can it be combined?

PERHAPS the biggest challenge for a club that is trying to reach the top is to find the balance between developing its own players and satisfy the demands from the fans and their hunger for instant success. This is particularly true for clubs in the Barclays Premier League.

Since the restructuring of the English top division and the vastly improved club economy, the league has become a money-driven rat race where the clubs have no other choice than jumping on the money train in order to compete.

Whether it’s about challenging for the title or simply staying in the league, relatively significant financial muscles are needed.

All of this is old news of course. One of the reasons why Liverpool FC are where they are right now is because the club never took advantage of the opportunities that came along when things took off in the 90s. They had a good and young generation of players who were the core of a highly promising team, but the club failed to capitalise on the commercial side and in the end never were able to build the strong foundation that was really needed to take LFC into the new millennium. Also old news.

Liverpool is said to be a good place for young players to be at the moment, and also has a manager who is not afraid to use them. For a while though, the club didn’t seem to put much emphasis on promoting players from the academy. The best ones like Carragher, Owen and Gerrard made it through and established themselves anyway, but perhaps more because of their special talent or by the virtue of their strong character than anything else. Special players always rise to the top, irrespective of circumstances.

What happened during the Houllier years was that the promotion of academy talent seemingly became neglected in favour of building a strong first team. Something obviously had to give; it was either that or the other way around, taking the longer term approach and focus on giving more youngsters the chance to grow into a first team role.
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Looking at the players Liverpool are being heavily linked to and the players Rodgers have bought so far we can see the pattern: the club is buying young players who are meant to both contribute here and now, but also to develop into better players given time. There will be no quick fix to take the club back to the top straight away; Liverpool FC are working within a budget that is relatively limited compared to the top teams – both in terms of wages and in terms of money available for transfers – and this is the direction the club seem to have settled on for now.

The question I’m asking though is this: Is this direction to be considered as a path of development or is it a compromise?

With the possible signings of Luis Alberto from Sevilla, Tiago Ilori from Sporting and Christian Atsu from Porto in mind, can it be argued that these are signings that could end up blocking some the club’s youngsters’ way into the first team, and that the club thereby strays away from its direction; or is this players that are needed to make the first team stronger as well as – given their young age – obviously being players who fit the development profile?

The way I see it, the club is indeed settling for some kind of compromise. The history of Liverpool Football Club brings a certain burden with it, albeit the good kind of burden. What was once great can become great again, and this history means that nobody in charge of running the club will ever be allowed to settle with mediocrity. No matter the circumstances there will always be huge expectations around having a competitive first team, but simultaneously there’s also the expectation of introducing some of the promising youngsters to the first team – which is perfectly natural given the group of players the club has at U21 and U18 level.

But are Liverpool FC in a position to play these youngsters? Can we as fans realistically expect to see another Raheem Sterling and Andre Wisdom being introduced every season while also expect the team to get back into the Champions League and challenge for trophies, or are we not yet in a position to combine the two?

I don’t think we can expect it; not while in the position the club currently finds itself in. LFC don’t have the ‘luxury’ of developing slowly and peacefully right now; nor is the club’s first team competitive enough to carry one or two youngsters while upholding expectations.

Which is why I think some of our talented youngsters – players we ideally would like to see as members of the first team squad – will have to wait a couple of years before getting the chance to establish themselves in the team.
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