Steven Gerrard lines up against Chelsea today with his reputation as Liverpool's saviour restored. The captain rose from the bench on Thursday to turn a 1-0 deficit against Napoli into a 3-1 victory almost single-handed. But along with the euphoria that generated came a familiar, grim feeling for all Kopites; when is Anfield's next home-grown superstar going to arrive?
It is close to 12 years since Gerrard made his debut for Liverpool. The date was 29 November, 1998, Blackburn Rovers were the opponents and since then a club which had produced a glut of talent – most notably Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen – has created little for its supporters to get excited about. Instead a list of those who have risen from the youth ranks over the past decade now reads like a who's who of lower-league fillers.
It is in this context that last week's appointment of Damien Comolli as Liverpool's director of football strategy is significant. The Frenchman's brief is, according to the club's owner John W Henry, to "identify exciting young talent" in much the same way he did while working as a European scout for Arsenal and, to a lesser extent, as director of football at Tottenham. If Comolli is successful, there will surely be fewer Jon Otsemobors and more Gaël Clichys filling Liverpool's age-group teams.
In fairness the club had identified a failure to produce talent of its own long before Henry arrived. Liverpool had won the FA Youth Cup in 2006 and 2007, as well as reaching the final in 2009, yet none of those who played in those teams has come close to establishing himself in the first team in the way Gerrard and Carragher have. Something was clearly wrong.
To address the situation there was a major and expensive overhaul of the club's academy in Kirkby 2009. Close to 17 coaches were let go and in came Frank McParland as academy director and, most interestingly, Rodolfo Borrell as the under-18s coach.
Borrell was recruited from Barcelona's renowned La Masia, where he had developed Cesc Fábregas, Gerard Piqué and Lionel Messi. Whether he can do the same for Liverpool will only become apparent in due course but what is certain is that the Spaniard, who was directly appointed by Rafael Benítez, feels he is working from a low base.
"The reality of what we found here was unacceptable," Borrell said in April. "The under-18s had no centre-forward, no balance, no understanding of the game. We are working hard but you can't change things overnight."
That assessment would be deemed harsh by recent attendees of Liverpool's academy. Robbie Threlfall, for instance, scored in the final of Liverpool's 2006 and 2007 triumphs and feels he could have progressed into the first team had there been a desire among senior management, most notably Benítez, to give young players a chance.
"Like most of the lads at the academy, I didn't have a relationship with Rafa, he wouldn't speak to any of us on a personal level," says Threlfall, who joined Liverpool at the age of 11 and, after a series of loan spells elsewhere, signed for Bradford in May. "It also didn't help that we'd be performing well and then see a foreign player signed ahead of us. In my case that was Emiliano Insúa. When he came I knew my time was up."
Threlfall remains friends with most of the class of 2006 and 2007, including Jay Spearing, who captained the latter and has featured regularly for the first team in this season's Europa League alongside other youngsters – some nurtured, others signed – such as Martin Kelly and Jonjo Shelvey.
"With Roy Hodgson in charge the young lads will hopefully get a chance," Threlfall says. "As a Liverpool fan myself I want to see more homegrown players, particularly local ones, in the team."
That sentiment is shared by Liverpool city council. Warren Bradley, the leader of the Liberal Democrats on the council, has revealed to Observer Sport thatthe council has spokento Henry, as well as to officials at Everton and Tranmere, about a policy that would ensure that 5% of their annual academy recruits were local apprentices.
"We believe 5% is a realistic figure and a fair one," says former council leader Bradley. "These clubs take huge amounts of money from the local community and it is only right they put something back."
For now the focus remains fixed on Carragher and Gerrard. They face a Chelsea side who are also short of homegrown talents but believe they may have unearthed a gem in the 17-year-old midfielder Josh McEachran. The word from Kirkby is that Raheem Sterling and Suso could be Anfield's next big things. No more need, then, for Liverpool to sign such players as Andriy Voronin.
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