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BBC Sport

Liverpool have signed highly rated Crewe Alexandra youngster Dan Smith for a fee in the region of £300,000.
Midfielder Smith, 16, had been poised to move to Manchester City, only for the move to fall through last month.
The fee for Smith, who is yet to appear for Alex, will rise depending on first-team appearances for the Reds.
He will follow Danny Murphy and Rob Jones, who enjoyed successful careers at Liverpool after making the short move from Crewe.
Smith was recruited to the Crewe Academy at the age of 11, and attracted a number of Premier League scouts as he progressed through the ranks.
The move will also offer financial relief for Alex, whose academy runs at a cost of £500,000 per year.
Chairman John Bowler revealed earlier in April he remains confident of the club's financial future, despite posting losses of nearly £1m.
He stated his belief that the club can continue to produce young players to move forward on and off the pitch.
"The only time when you get anxious is if you know you haven't got the young players coming through, but we have," Bowler told BBC Radio Stoke.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17755809

Another "highly rated" youngster why am I not excited?

Anyways, I hope he makes the grade, a lot of our youngsters over the past few year were nothing short of disappointing. Welcome to the club!

metalhead » Wed Apr 18, 2012 12:36 pm wrote:Another "highly rated" youngster why am I not excited?

Anyways, I hope he makes the grade, a lot of our youngsters over the past few year were nothing short of disappointing. Welcome to the club!

You're not excited MH ,because like me you know history dictates he will no doubt be farmed out to Blackpool after a couple of years .

Exactly mate, but hopefully things will change and this time around our percentage of youth making into the first team increases

metalhead » Wed Apr 18, 2012 12:45 pm wrote:Exactly mate, but hopefully things will change and this time around our percentage of youth making into the first team increases

I hope so to ,because we certainly have a huge crop of youngsters who are extremely talented, and we seem to be collating them
at the rate of knots .

Is it too much to ask to uncover the new Messi? :P

Welcome lad, no pressure!!

RED BEERGOGGLES » Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:55 pm wrote: we seem to be collating them
at the rate of knots .

we seem to be collecting and combining them in a correct order at the speed of nautical miles? i don't understand.     


anyway, i'm absolutely cock-a-hoop   

andy_g » Wed Apr 18, 2012 2:13 pm wrote:

RED BEERGOGGLES » Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:55 pm wrote: we seem to be collating them
at the rate of knots .

anyway, i'm absolutely cock-a-hoop   

Why would you place your member in a wooden ,plastic,or metal ring ? 

RED BEERGOGGLES » Wed Apr 18, 2012 2:34 pm wrote:

andy_g » Wed Apr 18, 2012 2:13 pm wrote:

RED BEERGOGGLES » Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:55 pm wrote: we seem to be collating them
at the rate of knots .

anyway, i'm absolutely cock-a-hoop   

Is that like placing your member in a large wooden ,plastic,or metal ring. 

It means sodomy

always had a good relationship with crewe. rob jones, danny murphy and the likes.

hope the kid turns out to be a star.

stmichael » Wed Apr 18, 2012 2:46 pm wrote:always had a good relationship with crewe. rob jones, danny murphy and the likes.

hope the kid turns out to be a star.

Crewe have developed some really good players over the years ,like Murphy ,Neil Lennon ,Ashton and more recently Varney .

Clubs like Crew dont get adequate compo in fairness.

I mean £300k rising to a top figure of £1m depending on appreances is not
that much at all if the lad becomes a superstar (which ofcourse is unlikely).

The top figure should be more like £5m minimum so they get properly
rewarded from a player they have probably invested a lot of time in
already even at only 16. Could have been with them 8 years now.

If he turns out to be a promising Prem player he will be worth minimum £15m
in his 20s.

Think its even worse if your outside the league structure, you get nothing,
or next to nothing for these young kids even though most BSP
sides are full time clubs with academys.

Poor really when you consider the money weve wasted on players and they
are getting those numbers.

The way the game is going, it seems like some clubs would prefer to spend 20M on a proven player than bother with developing youths.
That obviously an awful approach and im glad we're still trying to develop young players at this club.

We have a lot of young players with potential now and hopefully it will save us millions.

another young lad whos going to be the dogs in 5yrs time. .
only time will tell if he will or wont make it.the fee we paid wasnt a lot and if in 5 yrs time if he isnt going to make it then he can be offloaded to a champ side and still earn a profit for the club.
personally i hope the youth coaching setup has changed drastically under fsg and some of these lads will actually make it into our 1st team.

I agree with our youth policy but not the deals smaller clubs are dealt
when young kids heads are turned by bigger clubs.

Its a hell of a chance for the lad and you cant blame him taking the
opportunity and end of the day he will find his level simple as that.

There is the long way up or the slow side down the pyramids, hes
been fastracked, but will settle where his ability lies like rest.