Liverpool FC Forum

[Cool Hand Luke]

It would be interesting to see how much Rafa has spent on reserve players since he has been here.

Any volunteers to do the research?

[account deleted by request]

Players bought by Rafael Benítez

Player From Fee Date
Josemi Rey Malaga £2,000,000 26.07.2004
Antonio Nunez Real Madrid £1,500,000* 17.08.2004
Luis Garcia Barcelona £6,000,000 20.08.2004
Xabi Alonso Real Sociedad £10,700,000 20.08.2004
Mauricio Pellegrino Valencia Free 05.01.2005
Fernando Morientes Real Madrid £6,300,000 13.01.2005
Scott Carson Leeds United £1,000,000 21.01.2005
Antonio Barragan Sevilla £240,000 04.07.2005
Boudewijn Zenden Free Transfer Free* 04.07.2005
Jose Reina Villareal £6,000,000 04.07.2005
Mohamed Sissoko Valencia £5,600,000 14.07.2005
Peter Crouch Southampton £7,000,000 20.07.2005
Godwin Antwi Real Zaragoza Unknown 15.08.2005
Miki Roque Lleida Unknown 15.08.2005
Jack Hobbs Lincoln City £150,000* 18.08.2005
Besian Idrizaj LASK Linz £190,000* 22.08.2005
Mark Gonzalez Albacete £1,500,000* 20.10.2005
Paul Anderson Hull City Player Exchange* 01.01.2006
Jan Kromkamp Villareal Player Exchange* 04.01.2006
Daniel Agger Brøndby £5,800,000 12.01.2006
David Martin MK Dons £250,000* 12.01.2006
Robbie Fowler Man City Free 27.01.2006
Craig Bellamy Blackburn £6,000,000 01.07.2006
Gabriel Paletta Club Atlético Banfield £2,000,000 04.07.2006
Fábio Aurélio Valencia Free 05.07.2006
Jermaine Pennant Birmingham £6,700,000 26.07.2006
Dirk Kuyt Feyenoord £9,000,000 18.08.2006
Nabil El Zhar St Etienne £200,000 21.08.2006
Astrit  Ajdarevic Falkenberg £750,000* 11.01.2007
Daniele Padelli Sampdoria On Loan* 12.01.2007
Jordy Brouwer Ajax Undisclosed* 24.01.2007
Francisco Durán  Malaga £66,000* 30.01.2007
Ronald Huth Tacuary FC Undisclosed 31.01.2007
Álvaro Arbeloa Deportivo £2,500,000 31.01.2007
Javier Mascherano West Ham On Loan 20.02.2007
Lucas Leiva Gremio £5,000,000 11.05.2007
Mikel San José Domínguez Athletic Bilbao £270,000 28.06.2007
Sebastian Leto Club Atlético Lanús £1,800,000 01.07.2007
Fernando Torres Atletico Madrid £20,200,000 04.07.2007
Andriy Voronin Leverkusen Free* 06.07.2007
Yossi Benayoun West Ham £5,000,000 12.07.2007
Ryan Babel Ajax £11,500,000 13.07.2007
Charles Itandje Lens Undisclosed 09.08.2007
Emiliano Insúa Boca Juniors £1,300,000* 26.08.2007
Martin Skrtel Zenit St Petersburg  £6,500,000 11.01.2008
Javier Mascherano Media Sports Investment £17,000,000 29.02.2008
Philipp Degen Dortmund Free* 03.07.2008
Andrea Dossena Udinese £7,000,000 04.07.2008
Diego Cavalieri Palmeiras £3,500,000 11.07.2008
David Ngog Paris St Germain £1,500,000 24.07.2008
Robbie Keane Tottenham £19,000,000* 28.07.2008
Albert Riera Espanyol £8,000,000 31.08.2008


Rafael Benítez bought 52 players for £190,616,000

Heres's the list of players he has bought, perhaps you can do it ? The problem is a lot of the fees are undisclosed and then there is the argument over which players were bought for the reserves and which for the first team squad?

[Owzat]

Not just undisclosed fees are the problem, I could pick a few out and argue the fee - Kuyt £10m instead of £9m sprung at me, and Keane at £20.3m instead of £18m (as I'd call it, I'm not nitpicking, I am observing how hard it is and how different figures can be from different people/sources).

I'd reckon on the total being about right, give or take and if you find out how much we paid for Mascherano who I believe has since been signed permanently (£18.6m?). I reckon the current squad cost around £150m and is not far behind the mancs, we now have quite a collection of £10m+ players - Alonso, Kuyt, Babel, Mascherano, Torres and Keane. Before Rafa arrived I think we'd signed just Heskey and Cisse for £10m+, although Cisse and Houllier's paths crossed as one arrived and the other parted.


It is a shame we keep signing kids from abroad, great talents as they might be we have yet to see one that cost little break into the 1st team. Last young players to come through and make a real and long term impact were Owen, Gerrard, Fowler and Carragher............................. Funny that. Pongolle, Le Tallec et al have all long since departed, a few examples of the 'pinching/poaching policy'

[stmichael]

Reserve highlights vs Man City. Includes an excellent goal from El Zhar:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OAUQZAgxses

[account deleted by request]

Any updated news on the bust up yet?

I think it was a case of a lot more smoke than fire

Still going on from what I have read. Parry's son is now causing a few problems as he has brought some of his "mates" in since becoming a coach.

There seems to be a split with Rafa on one side and Parry and the Academy on the other.

[maypaxvobiscum]

Parry's son is a coach at Liverpool? wtf!

[account deleted by request]

Parry's son is a coach at Liverpool? wtf!

He's got all his coaching badges..... maybe Parry's son is Stu ?   

[maypaxvobiscum]

Parry's son is a coach at Liverpool? wtf!

He's got all his coaching badges..... maybe Parry's son is Stu ?   

explains his disappearence. 

[account deleted by request]

Seems that Rafa has problems with the Academy and the way it is run, and he won't promote them even when they are better than the players Mercia is bringing in. While Mercia's signings get "fast tracked ". Parry's son being a coach has just added to the split!

[7_Kewell]

Parry's son is a coach at Liverpool? wtf!

He's got all his coaching badges..... maybe Parry's son is Stu ?   

that would be funny 

[tubby]

Oh he wont like that haha

I think the only semi decent looking youngster we have is El Zhar. Hope we see more of him this season. He scored a great goal against Cardiff last season and done well when he came on against Wigan a few weeks ago.

[GOAT_2.0]

Academy picture, can anyone name all of them?

[tubby]

No but if they play in the first team any more I know what most people will be calling them.

[NANNY RED]

Good good article hear

Figures paint worrying picture of Liverpool's Kirkby Academy
Nov 28 2008 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo

EVERTON 6 Liverpool 0 is not a scoreline anyone at Anfield would ever like to see.

Nor is Man United 2 Liverpool 0. Or Man City 4 Liverpool 0. Or Blackburn 2 Liverpool 0. And – as if those weren’t bad enough – how about a couple of 1-0 defeats to Bolton and Wigan?

These aren’t results from this or any other season. But, in a way, what these scores represent is something much worse –each denotes the number of Academy graduates currently at each north west club who have made at least a single league appearance.

Liverpool fans cannot even claim Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher – both made their first team debuts before the Academy in Kirkby had even opened its doors.

All Liverpool’s Academy graduates can boast between them is a single substitute’s appearance in this season’s Carling Cup when former Youth Cup winning captain Stephen Darby came on for the injured Philipp Degen in the 4-2 defeat at Spurs with just six minutes left on the clock.

It is a far cry from what was expected of the Academy when it opened its doors for the first time a decade ago. Back then, Liverpool were basking in the glow of a golden generation of local youngsters who had all made their way through the ranks and graduated into the first team from the club’s school of excellence.

Among those who had come through were Gerrard, Carragher, Steve McManaman, Dominic Matteo, Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler. All six made their full debuts in the 1990s and at that time it seemed as if the production line would just keep on rolling, churning out talented young player after talented young player.

But all of a sudden it ground to a halt. The club may have ploughed an initial £10m into its brand new Academy but even that outlay and the many millions more that have been invested in it since has failed to result in a commensurate return on its investment.

Success stories are few and far between. Stephen Warnock is probably the best known Academy graduate having made 40 league appearances for Liverpool and the £1.5m his transfer to Blackburn brought into the club was certainly a decent fee for a player who had cost nothing.

In retrospect, there are those who argue that Liverpool should have kept the Ormskirk-born defender, particularly as Warnock has impressed at Blackburn at a time when left back has become something of a problem position for Rafa Benitez.

Danny Guthrie is another who staked his claim only to find his chances of making a long lasting impact on the first team thwarted by the presence of Gerrard, Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso and, more controversially, Lucas.

Newcastle paid £2.5m for his services in the summer, meaning Guthrie’s departure brought in more than half of the £4.8m Liverpool have recouped from the sale of Academy players over the last decade.

But of the 13 other homegrown players who have been sold after making it onto the fringes of Liverpool’s squad you would be hard pressed to find anyone willing to mount a convincing case for any of their services being retained.

The fact that every single one of this baker’s dozen are plying their trade outside the Premier League at clubs like Yeovil Town, Preston, Burton Albion, Millwall, Chester City and Leigh Genesis tells its own story. Not a single player who has been released after coming through the Academy has come back to haunt the club and this in itself is an indication of the failings at youth level.

Conversely, there are a couple of hugely promising teenagers who spent time at the Academy but whose services were not retained who could turn out to be the ones that got away.

Jack Rodwell and Jose Baxter supported Liverpool but ended up at Everton where both have progressed well enough to feature in David Moyes’ squad.

That’s the way it goes in youth football, of course and in the past Liverpool were the beneficiaries of such vagaries with the likes of McManaman, Fowler, Owen and Carragher choosing to follow their heads, not their hearts when it came to joining a club.

But with UEFA decreeing Champions League clubs must have at least four homegrown players on squad lists, Liverpool are under pressure to ensure no more quality local youngsters slip the net.

The biggest crying shame of all this is that Liverpool would have been brought to their knees over the last 20 years had it not been for the input of local players. First it was Fowler and McManaman carrying the team through the mid-90s, then Michael Owen burst onto the scene scoring bucketloads of goals and giving the club new hope and raised expectations.

Next up, Gerrard and Carragher became the personification of the “Scouse heartbeat” which Gerard Houllier always claimed was so vital at Anfield.

Think of Liverpool’s greatest successes of recent times and local players were at their core. The 2006 FA Cup, the 2005 Champions League, the 2003 League Cup, the treble in 2001 and the 1995 League Cup were all inspired by homegrown talent.

For the time being, though, it appears that there is no-one from the Merseyside area who is ready to make such an impact and that needs to change.

When Steve Heighway resigned as Academy chief in June 2007, Liverpool went down the route of appointing a foreign technical manager to oversee the development of their young players. Rick Parry’s choice was Piet Hamberg but with the Dutchman’s two year contract expiring next summer there is little sign of him being offered a new one and it could be Liverpool will soon be looking for another new man to head up their youth system.

It is too easy to point the finger at individuals as to why theAcademy is not living up to its mission statement, bringing “young stars of the future through to first team places and beyond” but the blame game is one reason why such failure currently seems irreversible.

What is needed is a root and branch review of the last 10 years with the club asking itself why the Academy is not achieving what it set to.

LEAGUE LEADERS

Academy graduates who have made at least one league appearance

Stephen Warnock 27 (+13 sub)

Neil Mellor 7 (+5 sub)

John Welsh 4 (+2 sub)

Jon Otsemobor 4

Danny Guthrie (3 sub)

Darren Potter (2 sub)

David Raven (1 sub)

Jon Newby (1 sub)

Academy graduates who made the grade

NORTH WEST Premier League clubs whose current squads contain Academy graduates with at least one league appearance to their name

LIVERPOOL

None

EVERTON

Jack Rodwell

Jose Baxter

Leon Osman

James Vaughan

Tony Hibbert

Victor Anichebe

MANCHESTER CITY

Micah Richards

Nedum Onuoha

Michael Johnson

Daniel Sturridge

MANCHESTER UTD

Danny Welbeck

Jonny Evans

BLACKBURN

Keith Treacy

Matt Derbyshire

BOLTON

Joey O'Brien

WIGAN

Luke Ashworth

tonybarrett@liverpoolecho.co.uk

[metalhead]

Good article Nanny

Rafa made a big mistake selling Warnock and Guthrie. Guthrie at least is better than lucas, he would have been a really decent 4th choice midfielder.

Warnock is better than that c@ck 7m dossena