by LFC2007 » Wed Dec 03, 2008 12:20 am
If we're talking kids who are 15+, then the manager has to have an input (particularly at a club like ours where the manager is expected to devise a long-term plan). It's at around that age that a youngster is developed fully in terms of technical ability, and for that reason you should have an enhanced idea as to whether they have a future in the game. At that point, the influence of the manager, but more so his team of scouts should kick in - i.e whether they choose to recruit from abroad or promote players from the academy. They are best placed to ensure that their strategy falls in line with their aims and objectives. That is to find a player, or group of players of a certain style/character/whatever else for a certain type of role. Below the age of 15 or so, the manager's input should be minimal and for a couple of reasons. One is that there is a large pool of youngsters to scout and that's a specialist task in itself - too much for the manager to be heavily involved in (and which he isn't). Two is that youngsters of < 15 will be at the stage where they're still developing basic footballing attributes i.e. technique, and so based on the little evidence the manager would have at hand, his insight into their potential future worth to the first team would be very limited.
I'm not so sure the problem lies with bringing through too many foreign youngsters in the 15+ age group and not enough local ones. I don't think Rafa or his network of scouts favour foreign players without good reason. I think they genuinely believe there is a lack of quality at a local level, and that nationally it's very competitive (which it is), so they've turned abroad. I think they've probably just signed too many players who aren't up to standard at the end of the day (or we may have to wait before anything comes of the latest batch), so in respect of our recruitment polict for the 15+ age group it may not be a systemic problem, but rather poor judgement by those charged with finding the right players.
I don't think Rafa has a great influence over the younger groups of players, i.e. 9-15. Elias is head of recruitment on that front IIRC, and Hamberg the head of technical development i.e. training. It remains to be seen whether or not they're able to scout and nurture the talent good enough to come through to the first team, so I can't see how it would be fair to criticise them at present. Maybe we have lost Heighway's local knowledge, or maybe there's a lack of quality across the board, or maybe the network isn't picking them up. I think there is a general lack of quality across the board, but in spite of this problem, we still should have done a lot better. I also think that whilst a talent on Gerrard's level will always come through the system irrespective of how many players you put in front of him, a player like Carragher is one that could get away because his type are less obvious to spot yet are just as capable of being a huge asset to the team.