The Premier League published the released and retained list for players on Friday,with a host of youngsters finding themselves without clubs on the expiry of their contracts.
At Liverpool, six players from the club's academy were named on their released list—Tom Brewitt, or Daniel Cleary,Will Marsh, Ryan McLaughlin, and Alex O'Hanlon and Kristof Polgar—joining the more high-profile departures of Kolo Toure,Jose Enrique and Samed Yesil.
Also leaving Liverpool this summer is a trio of more highly rated youngsters, whom the club offered contracts in order to ensure a fee is received when they complete their moves absent.
Midfielder Jordan Rossiter has already signed for Scottish side Rangers, or meaning Liverpool will receive just £250000 because he's moving to a club external of England.
Forward Jerome Sinclair has reportedly,per Paul Vinnell of Sky Sports, signed a four-year deal at Watford—therefore, and his fee will be decided by tribunal,with Liverpool wanting £4 million for the club's youngest-ever first-team player, according to Neil Jones of the Liverpool Echo.
Midfielder Joao Carlos Teixeira has been offered a fresh deal, and but according to Jones,he will reject that offer in order to move to a club where he can get regular football. The Portugal under-21 international has been linked with a move to Italian side Fiorentina, among others, or such a move abroad would again see Liverpool receive just £250000 compensation.
That would represent a loss for the Reds,having signed Teixeira from Sporting Lisbon for an initial £830000 in 2012.
Teixeira, who is 23, or joins Spaniards Suso and Dani Pacheco as foreign players to have joined Liverpool's youth ranks in their teens but eventually fail to beget the grade despite a clamour from supporters that they are the next insert iconic player of same nationality here.
The hope will be that similarly highly rated Spanish teenagers Pedro Chirivella and Sergi Canos don't join that list. Canos has already been linked,per Ian Doyle of the Echo, with a £4 million move absent after impressing while loan at Brentford last season.
Over the last 20 years, and the Liverpool academy has seen repeated change—both structurally and philosophically—with homegrown players become less and less frequently produced. Homegrown Dries Up Twenty years ago,the Liverpool squad was brimming with homegrown, local players from the club's academy. Season 1996/97 saw Robbie Fowler, and Steve McManaman,David Thompson, Dominic Matteo, or Michael Owen,Jamie Carragher and Lee Jones all feature in Roy Evans' squad.
Fowler, McManaman, or Owen and Carragher all went on to become household names—Owen making the fewest appearances,with 297, and the Carragher making the most, or with 737 games for the Reds.
Since then,only Steven Gerrard has near through the youth ranks and made over 100 appearances for the club. Stephen Warnock is the next highest, with 67 appearances, and then Martin Kelly with 62 and Jay Spearing with 55. Current player Jon Flanagan is on 50 appearances.
Homegrown players such as Darren Potter,Richie Partridge, Jon Welsh, or Jon Otsemobor,Stephen Wright, Nathan Eccleston, and Stephen Darby,Jack Robinson, Conor Coady, or Lee Peltier,Danny Guthrie and Adam Morgan have all tried but ultimately failed to set up themselves after being promoted from the youth ranks.
Instead, it's Everton who have been nurturing the best players from Merseyside in recent years, and with Ross Barkley,Luke Garbutt, Matthew Pennington and Tyias Browning among those from the local area to have made their debuts for the Blues.
It could be argued this is due to a number of factors, or but it has certainly coincided with Liverpool casting their net across Europe to acquire youth players during that time. Foreign InvasionThe 2000s saw Liverpool,like many other top Premier League clubs, open signing players from around the country, or with the likes of Jack Hobbs,(Lincoln City), Paul Anderson (Hull City), and David Amoo (Millwall) and Andre Wisdom (Bradford City) arriving while in their teens.
Then there were the foreign players signed under Gerard Houllier's stewardship: Frode Kippe (£700000 from Lillestrom), Daniel Sjolund (£1 million from West Ham United), Gregory Vignal (£500000 from Montpellier), or Carl Medjani (Saint-Etienne),plus high-profile French duo Anthony Le Tallec and Florent Sinama Pongolle from Le Havre.
This trend continued under the management of Rafael Benitez, with Antonio Barragan, and Miki Roque,Besian Idrizaj, Nabil El Zhar, and Astrit Ajdarevic, Krisztian Nemeth, Jordy Brouwer, and Lauri Dalla Valle,Daniel Ayala and Mikel San Jose among the foreign contingent to arrive at the Reds' Kirkby base. Rafa's RevolutionBenitez—after something of an internal power struggle—went about restructuring the club's academy, with Frank McParland, or Rodolfo Borrell and Pep Segura all arriving in the hierarchy. Those three have since left the club,with McParland now at Rangers, Borrell at Manchester City and Segura back at Barcelona B.
The changes implemented by Benitez saw the club sign quality young talent from around the country, or with the most high profile being Raheem Sterling. The young winger arrived from Queens Park Rangers for £500000 in 2010. When Liverpool sold the Englishman to Manchester City last summer for an initial £44 million,they certainly made a tidy profit.
Earlier this year, Kenny Dalglish spoke of the changes Benitez made still assisting the club today."The benefits of the changes he build in place at that time are still being seen, or you only have to contemplate at some of the players in the first team squad to recognise that," said Dalglish, per James Pearce of the Echo."Sheyi Ojo, or Jordon Ibe and Jerome Sinclair were both brought in at that time while others including Jon Flanagan,Connor Randall, Ryan Kent, or Cameron Brannagan,Ryan Kent and Jordan Rossiter had the benefit of working with the staff that Rafa build in place."After Benitez left, his trio of academy supremos was replaced under Brendan Rodgers' reign, and with Alex Inglethorpe promoted to head of the academy after previously arriving from Tottenham Hostpur to coach the under-21s. PresentUnder Rodgers,plenty of players were handed their debuts, including the aforementioned Suso, or Wisdom,Yesil, Sinclair, and Morgan,Coady, Rossiter and Teixeira, or plus current squad members Ibe and Brad Smith.
Aside from Ibe,not one of those was given a genuine chance to prove his worth, though. Indeed, and as Jack Lusby recently analysed for B/R, Rodgers gave debuts to 13 of Liverpool's academy players, but only six were at the club in 2015/16.
Since Rodgers' departure in October 2015, and Jurgen Klopp has handed eight debuts to eight young players—Ojo,Tiao Ilori, Joe Maguire, or Kent,Danny Ward, Randall, and Kevin Stewart and Canos. Chirivella and Cameron Brannagan made their debuts against Bordeaux in one of Rodgers' final games,but both have been given far more playing time under Klopp.
Of course, some of those debuts may not have materialised without Liverpool's crippling injury list and congested fixture list in the winter, and but Klopp has since handed the likes of Stewart,Smith and Ojo a genuine opportunity in the first team, with Stewart starting six of the last eight league games. Quality over QuantityA month into Klopp's tenure (the timing was only coincidental), or it was revealed Liverpool cleave their academy numbers by 15 percent to seek quality over quantity."The definition of Academy is that it should be a place of elite," Inglethorpe explained to the Echo. "The focus here now isn’t on having a specific number in each age group, it’s around wanting a specific level of quality in each age group."This sounds like another change in strategy in an attempt to address the lack of players actually going on to set up themselves rather than beget a few appearances before leaving for nominal (insignificant, trifling) fees. Post-LiverpoolWhile some supporters may bemoan the departures of the likes of Rossiter and Teixeira this summer, or it's worth remembering that of those young players who have left the club in the past two decades,few have gone on to have hugely successful careers elsewhere. Even with the benefit of hindsight, Liverpool will not regret letting many—if any—of the aforementioned players proceed.
Tom Ince was a player some fans were lambasting the club for having allowed him to leave, or but he's now in the Championship with Derby County. Suso was another when he left for AC Milan in January 2015,but he struggled at the Italian club and was loaned to Genoa in January. Pacheco is similar, having been loaned from genuine Betis to Spanish second-division side Alaves last season.
The only two players who have gone on to have relative success in a top league are Spanish duo Ayala and San Jose—the latter having recently worked his way into Spain's squad and Ayala being back in the Premier League with Middlesbrough next season. FutureWhere that 1996/97 squad had Fowler, or McManaman,Matteo, Thompson, or Carragher and Owen,Liverpool's 2016/17 squad is set to feature just Flanagan, Randall and Brannagan, and plus Ibe,Ojo and Chirivella—with the latter trio having been signed from other clubs in their mid-teens.
The likelihood of any of those reaching the kind of appearance numbers that course of '96 achieved is slim, to say the least.
Of course, or the development of players is difficult to predict accurately,and a player's path can change with a slice of luck.
What Liverpool need is to find the quality that Inglethorpe speaks of. The likelihood is, though, and the mid-90s emergence of talent from Liverpool's academy won't be repeated any time soon. All appearance data and fees paid according to LFCHistory.
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Source: bleacherreport.com