There is a very interesting quote on Arsenal.com this morning from Arsene Wenger, which all Arsenal fans who have watched Wenger promote his policy of using youngsters for the last decade will read with bated breath.
This is his quote: "You can play well for 80 minutes and lose a game because one or two players make a mistake in decisive moments against experienced players,"
"You grow with the knowledge of the game and you make your career with your qualities but with your experience as well.
Now there are many reports about this morning that Arsenal are the "Fourth Team" in the running to
sign Eden Hazard, but we ALL know that there is NO WAY that Arsenal can or will match the wages or
transfer fees on offer from Chelsea, Man City and Man United. And the reason is quite [...]
Promoting from within by Richard B. First impressions count. In those first few seconds that you
meet someone for the first time your mind is literally racing, profiling everything about them from
their haircut and choice of footwear right down to the extent they bite their fingernails. Most of
this is done subconsciously, but it [.
Arsene Wenger has pursued his policy of bringing talented youngsters through the youth system at
Arsenal for the last six years, and although the youthful squad always seems to falter when they
come within a gnats whisker of a trophy, he still thinks that it is the right way going forward.
BUT he also admits [.
The game in the Carling Cup against Manchester City was one of the better ones I have seen for some
time from the "second-string", or more precisely the young starlets. Ignasi Miquel looked the most
assured of the defenders (bar the first five minutes), Oxlade-Chamberlain had a great game down his
side, Frimpong held the [.
I was watching the Man U v. Spurs cup game last week and couldn't help but be envious of Ferguson's
team. As we all know, Manchester has suffered an injury crisis as of late yet Ferguson
has agains tated his unwillingness to buy because his squad is good enough. Against Tottenham
he ended up fielding a [.
Liverpool's Raheem Sterling is building up a very positive reputation in the club's youth set-up,
with Ian Rush recently describing him as 'very similar to Michael Owen'. Former Liverpool
midfielder Jamie Redknapp is also a big fan of youngster, and hopes that he'll get a chance in the
first team sooner rather than later.
Liverpool have a whole host of promising young attacking players being developed at Anfield right
now, but Kop legend Ian Rush believes one particular youngster stands out from all the rest. Rushie
was recently asked who he felt would be the 'next Ian Rush' at Liverpool. The ever-modest Welshman
argued that 'you have to be looking at someone with a better pace' than he had.
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has made no attempt to hide his anger over the the ridiculous
scheduling of the club's Carling Cup game with Chelsea, accusing the Football League of being
'irresponsible and of 'devaluing' its own competition. Whilst I'm sure most fans agree with Kenny's
stance, there is an unfortunate irony to his comments that many people may have missed.
Jesús Fernández Sáez, aka Suso, has given his first full interview since arriving at Anfield.
Luckily, he sounds like a humble, level-headed guy with reasonable expectations, and hopefully
he'll do well at Liverpool (despite the youth set-up's draconian coaching philosophy). However, his
taste in films leaves a lot to be desired.
Another day, another spurious attempt by fans to blame Roy Hodgson for something whilst completely
ignoring the reality and context of the situation. Apparently, Dani Pacheco is unhappy at
Liverpool, and according to the rabid, unreasonable fans who've been calling for his head, Hodgson
is to blame for this.
The latest comments from Liverpool reserve team boss John McMahon highlight (IMO) a major issue
with the club's coaching philosophy for creative youth players. It's the same depressing problem
that has afflicted English football for decades, and something that Trevor Brooking has been
tirelessly highlighting for years: over-emphasis (by british coaches) on strength, stamina and the
physical side of the game, and not enough work being done to encourage skill, technique and
creativity.
With the season finally over, speculation is rife about which players are on their way out of
Liverpool. Eoin Sheridan makes a case for one particularly promising young player to remain on the
books at Anfield.
After Rafa Benitez won the Champions League in 2005 he pledged to re-build the Liverpool squad,
with a focus on developing a stream of young talented players for the youth and reserve teams that
could come through into the first team and improve the quality of the squad.
In the last few weeks there has been vehement criticism of Rafa Benítez's youth policy since he
took over the club in 2004. There is much evidence to support the argument that Benítez has
overlooked those in the youth team; However, there is also ample evidence pointing to the
opposite.
There are a number of factors to consider when evaluating the youth policy of the club since
Benítez took over.
The Newcastle Journal are reporting today that Newcastle United have made a change to their youth policy and will no longer sign players who are under eighteen years of age. Ben Tozer didn't make it at Newcastle Aaron Spear and Ben Tozer are two examples of Newcastle signing younger players, and at the time [.
One of the defining characteristics of Rafael benitez's reign at Liverpool is the lack of young
players making the step up from the reserves and becoming established in the first team. This
season, I hope to see major progress made in this area, and progress *can* be made if Benitez
changes his approach just a little.
div align="left"I think most honest fans would accept that last summer was pretty catastrophic for
Liverpool FC when it came to transfers. Now that Rafa has almost dictatorial control at Anfield, is
he going to make the right choices this summer? After what I've just read, I really don't think
so.span class="fullpost"br /br /The one thing Rafa *did* do right last summer was buy experience.
