Liverpool FC Forum

[ElNino9]

I can't belive we beat Arsenal to a 18yr old Frenchman, thats a double wammy!

[JoeTerp]

Obviously my gripe should I have one is that we could just as easily signed some bloke from Tranmere, but as I can't actually think of any right now, I'll keep an open mind.

Since Rafa has been here we have signed plenty of British players, including several youngsters from the lower leagues including Carson, Hobbs, Anderson and Martin. We have also seen our academy aggressively recruit the likes of David Amoo from lower league teams and also from aboard. If there was “some bloke from Tranmere” that was worth brining in and it was actually feasible to do a deal I’m sure we would.

British players that Rafa has signed:

Scott Carson from Leeds United for £750,000
Peter Crouch from Southampton for £7,000,000
Jack Hobbs from Lincoln City for £150,000
Paul Anderson from Hull City in exchange for John Welsh
David Martin from MK Dons for £250,000
Robbie Fowler from Man City on a Free
Craig Bellamy from Blackburn for £6,000,000
Jermaine Pennant from Birmingham for £6,700,000
Robbie Keane from Tottenham for £19,000,000
Glen Johnson from Portsmouth for £17,500,000

The gripe should be around the fact that none of these young players bought into the academy and reserves are actually taking the step up. Not a single player, from what I would consider the current first team squad, has come through the academy/reserves since Rafa has been here. People can keep pointing the finger at the academy but there is nothing stopping Rafa from promoting players to Melwood and taking them under his wing.

Insua?

[GYBS]

Insua isnt british

[aCe']

Obviously my gripe should I have one is that we could just as easily signed some bloke from Tranmere, but as I can't actually think of any right now, I'll keep an open mind.

Since Rafa has been here we have signed plenty of British players, including several youngsters from the lower leagues including Carson, Hobbs, Anderson and Martin. We have also seen our academy aggressively recruit the likes of David Amoo from lower league teams and also from aboard. If there was “some bloke from Tranmere” that was worth brining in and it was actually feasible to do a deal I’m sure we would.

British players that Rafa has signed:

Scott Carson from Leeds United for £750,000
Peter Crouch from Southampton for £7,000,000
Jack Hobbs from Lincoln City for £150,000
Paul Anderson from Hull City in exchange for John Welsh
David Martin from MK Dons for £250,000
Robbie Fowler from Man City on a Free
Craig Bellamy from Blackburn for £6,000,000
Jermaine Pennant from Birmingham for £6,700,000
Robbie Keane from Tottenham for £19,000,000
Glen Johnson from Portsmouth for £17,500,000

The gripe should be around the fact that none of these young players bought into the academy and reserves are actually taking the step up. Not a single player, from what I would consider the current first team squad, has come through the academy/reserves since Rafa has been here. People can keep pointing the finger at the academy but there is nothing stopping Rafa from promoting players to Melwood and taking them under his wing.

thats 3 british youngsters...
2 of which are doing okay with lower level teams and have transferred for good money to get 1st team football elsewhere...
what have the foreign kids besides Insua done thats makes them such better prospects because i sure as hell arent seeing it...

im not having a go at Rafa for signing foreign kids dont get me wrong, i couldnt care less if we got them from Mars if they're good enough... problem is, more often than not, if not always, they arent good enough...

[JC_81]

Obviously my gripe should I have one is that we could just as easily signed some bloke from Tranmere, but as I can't actually think of any right now, I'll keep an open mind.

Since Rafa has been here we have signed plenty of British players, including several youngsters from the lower leagues including Carson, Hobbs, Anderson and Martin. We have also seen our academy aggressively recruit the likes of David Amoo from lower league teams and also from aboard. If there was “some bloke from Tranmere” that was worth brining in and it was actually feasible to do a deal I’m sure we would.

British players that Rafa has signed:

Scott Carson from Leeds United for £750,000
Peter Crouch from Southampton for £7,000,000
Jack Hobbs from Lincoln City for £150,000
Paul Anderson from Hull City in exchange for John Welsh
David Martin from MK Dons for £250,000
Robbie Fowler from Man City on a Free
Craig Bellamy from Blackburn for £6,000,000
Jermaine Pennant from Birmingham for £6,700,000
Robbie Keane from Tottenham for £19,000,000
Glen Johnson from Portsmouth for £17,500,000

The gripe should be around the fact that none of these young players bought into the academy and reserves are actually taking the step up. Not a single player, from what I would consider the current first team squad, has come through the academy/reserves since Rafa has been here. People can keep pointing the finger at the academy but there is nothing stopping Rafa from promoting players to Melwood and taking them under his wing.

Looking at that list, Rafa's record of buying British isn't too bad.  Considering the market prices of these players tends to be grossly inflated, the only players on that list that we made a loss on financially were Pennant and Keane.  On the rest we either made a profit or broke even.

On another note, rather than blame Benitez for players not making the step up from the academy, maybe it's the coaching.  It's not Benitez after all who is putting the time in on the training pitch with these lads.  Clearly some of them are very talented.  And is he not already trying to rectify that by overhauling the youth staff?  FFS Gerrard is the last proper player the academy has produced and he'll be 30 this season.  The rot had started well before Rafa came here.

[JoeTerp]

Obviously my gripe should I have one is that we could just as easily signed some bloke from Tranmere, but as I can't actually think of any right now, I'll keep an open mind.

Since Rafa has been here we have signed plenty of British players, including several youngsters from the lower leagues including Carson, Hobbs, Anderson and Martin. We have also seen our academy aggressively recruit the likes of David Amoo from lower league teams and also from aboard. If there was “some bloke from Tranmere” that was worth brining in and it was actually feasible to do a deal I’m sure we would.

British players that Rafa has signed:

Scott Carson from Leeds United for £750,000
Peter Crouch from Southampton for £7,000,000
Jack Hobbs from Lincoln City for £150,000
Paul Anderson from Hull City in exchange for John Welsh
David Martin from MK Dons for £250,000
Robbie Fowler from Man City on a Free
Craig Bellamy from Blackburn for £6,000,000
Jermaine Pennant from Birmingham for £6,700,000
Robbie Keane from Tottenham for £19,000,000
Glen Johnson from Portsmouth for £17,500,000

The gripe should be around the fact that none of these young players bought into the academy and reserves are actually taking the step up. Not a single player, from what I would consider the current first team squad, has come through the academy/reserves since Rafa has been here. People can keep pointing the finger at the academy but there is nothing stopping Rafa from promoting players to Melwood and taking them under his wing.

thats 3 british youngsters...
2 of which are doing okay with lower level teams and have transferred for good money to get 1st team football elsewhere...
what have the foreign kids besides Insua done thats makes them such better prospects because i sure as hell arent seeing it...

im not having a go at Rafa for signing foreign kids dont get me wrong, i couldnt care less if we got them from Mars if they're good enough... problem is, more often than not, if not always, they arent good enough...

not exactly an exhaustive list

Ryan Crowther
Deale Chamberlin
Nathan Eccleston
David Amoo
Gary Mackay-Steven (Scotland)

[GOAT]

By the way this mavinga lad is 170 cm rather short for a center back, and if were going to sign someone from psg , i would have hoped it would be mamadou sakho , he's a big lad and very highly rated all around the world , this would have been a good chance to snap him from psg as a replacement for hypia , he's only 19 as well and can play left back

reminds me of the Pacheco signing.

We signed a teenage sensation striker from Barca,  Was it Bojan?  No, his name is Pacheco.

We signed a teenage fullback from PSG, was it Sakho? No, It was Mavinga.

We would never have been able to sign bojan jesus fecking christ, and pacheco is one of our very best young talents so I don't know what you're talking about there, putting him down, looks like we signed someone who could have a big future in Pacheco even if he isnt the great bojan

[JoeTerp]

By the way this mavinga lad is 170 cm rather short for a center back, and if were going to sign someone from psg , i would have hoped it would be mamadou sakho , he's a big lad and very highly rated all around the world , this would have been a good chance to snap him from psg as a replacement for hypia , he's only 19 as well and can play left back

reminds me of the Pacheco signing.

We signed a teenage sensation striker from Barca,  Was it Bojan?  No, his name is Pacheco.

We signed a teenage fullback from PSG, was it Sakho? No, It was Mavinga.

We would never have been able to sign bojan jesus fecking christ, and pacheco is one of our very best young talents so I don't know what you're talking about there, putting him down, looks like we signed someone who could have a big future in Pacheco even if he isnt the great bojan

i like pacheco. i was just pointing out the similarities. and I know that we could not have signed bojan, probably could not have signed sakho either, or at least i imagine the price PSG would want for him would be based on his highest possible potential, making it too expensive of a risk.

[GOAT]

I don't get what you mean then, we couldn't have signed them players anyway so we've tried to get the best that we can

[JoeTerp]

I don't get what you mean then, we couldn't have signed them players anyway so we've tried to get the best that we can

plus in a way there could be more opportunity for Pacheco at Liverpool, because Bojan is so close in age, but a year older and fast tracked and of a similar build and semi-similar styles so he was always going to be behind him there

[ElNino9]

Rafa's already said that the youngsters will get a chance in pre-season, it's up to them to shine and get a first team place. Players like Kelly, Spearing and Irwin are being given a chance so lets hope they do well.

[Paul C]

Insua isnt british

LMAO, POW! 

[GOAT]

Rafa's already said that the youngsters will get a chance in pre-season, it's up to them to shine and get a first team place. Players like Kelly, Spearing and Irwin are being given a chance so lets hope they do well.

Nah feck that we dont want all this unglamourous english tosh, we want the spearinginhos, irwinbrottas and kellisimos 

[ElNino9]

[JoeTerp]

Insua isnt british

LMAO, POW! 

according to UEFA, Insua is as Scouse as Gerrard.