by kazza » Thu May 15, 2025 6:19 am
At the end of the day, football academies rely on the numbers game. For every 1000 talented kids maybe one or two make it, and for every 10,000 (conservatively) maybe one or two become world class. Everyone is looking for talent but still that is not enough as you need attitude too, so to be fair if Trent was not picked up by Liverpool as a kid he would have been picked up by Everton or any other team. Talent does the talking!
Once he signed you need to ask about how he behaved under contract. Was he late? Did he drink? Party too much? Was he a good or toxic personality in the team because the talent is given but his obligation and behavior is the only thing we should be asking ourselves. That is all he actually owed the club so as to who owes who and who did more for who? I’d say Liverpool invested in him not as a favor because the club are charitable, they improved him as he is their property contractually which he earned with his talent and attitude as without it there would not even be a relationship. The club owed him a salary and he owed them being a “professional” and both fulfilled their obligations. You can talk about him giving us “the corner” just as you can talk about him getting ghosted by players running by him or missed passes.
So bottom line is contractual… The club owes the player his salary and a facility to improve him and he owes the club a set of behaviors that will allow that to happen. The reason why the relationship between club and player lasted 20 years is because both fulfilled their obligations to each other. Had Trent blown his knee out at 14 the club would have moved him on.
Ultimately Trent will pay the ultimate price, but it won’t be now while he’s playing, it will be after he retires and the focus shifts from his playing to his legend. He may see himself as another Beckham who made his legend grow after leaving his parent club, but Beckham is a rare exception.
It seems unfair that a lad from Liverpool cannot want to see different things at this stage of his career. As long as he continues to acknowledge and help his community then he should be honored as a scoucer that made an impact on the world stage.
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