Summer Transfer Thread and Gustavo Cisneros Type Rumours.

[algy]

His highlights weren't that impressive but he does look promising. That said we have kids of our own that will be looking to challenge so if it's for big money i would pass.

Nah, get him in. Continue the policy of buying excellent players for today and the best players for the future. The more the merrier. And, realistically, we will be lucky if three or four of our Youth Cup heroes break through.

Yeah, similar thoughts from me.  We should aim to be a powerhouse in every age category, plus the first team.  If he'll strengthen the U23s & looks like he's still got potential for improvement, get him in.

[Lastfootstamper]

His highlights weren't that impressive but he does look promising. That said we have kids of our own that will be looking to challenge so if it's for big money i would pass.

Nah, get him in. Continue the policy of buying excellent players for today and the best players for the future. The more the merrier. And, realistically, we will be lucky if three or four of our Youth Cup heroes break through.

I think you're right about three or four breaking through with us, but they did look like most could make a living in the game. But it's harsh at that age, 4 players from the match day squad against Liverpool in the January Cup game have been released, including two that started the match.

[tomd2103]

If he does play wide right it frees bert up to be an impact sub/ollie’s cover.

McGinn is likely to play a lot further forward next season too. 4231 still is our best formation with Jack I think. Going to be very competitive with Buendia, McGinn, Sanson and Traore competing for two spots. I don't think Luiz is mature enough yet to be a single holding midfielder in a 433/4141 set up. Another midfielder next to him is essential for me.

Think we will see McGinn playing in that more advanced role in the Euros and I would certainly look at him starting next season in that role. 

[algy]

His highlights weren't that impressive but he does look promising. That said we have kids of our own that will be looking to challenge so if it's for big money i would pass.

Nah, get him in. Continue the policy of buying excellent players for today and the best players for the future. The more the merrier. And, realistically, we will be lucky if three or four of our Youth Cup heroes break through.

I think you're right about three or four breaking through with us, but they did look like most could make a living in the game. But it's harsh at that age, 4 players from the match day squad against Liverpool in the January Cup game have been released, including two that started the match.

One thing I quite like doing from time to time is looking through old FA Youth Cup final squads and seeing what happened to all of the players.  E.g. if you look at the Liverpool FA Youth Cup winning side from 2009 - so all players who are either at, just or past, their peak now:

GK - Dean Bouzanis - now playing non-league football, probably made a living but nothing more
DF - Steven Irwin - knocked around Europe playing a handful of games for random lower league sides, now playing non-league
DF - Jack Robinson - one of the more succesful ones, played about 200 games in the Championship for various clubs
DF - Daniel Ayala - similar to Robinson - 250 games, mostly in the Championship
MF - Andre Wisdom - couple of seasons on loan in the Premier League, now dropped down to the Championship & doing alright
MF - David Amoo - journeyman career spent mainly in League One & Two
MF - Christopher Buchtmann - made a decent career playing in the Bundesliga.2 for St Pauli
FW - Lauri Dalla Valle - lower league journeyman career across Europe, neer played more than about 30 games for one club
FW - Tom Ince - arguably the most successful, 350-odd games coming mainly in the Championship
MF - Alexander Kačaniklić - looked like he might break through at Fulham for a bit, plays a bit for Sweden, not really played for anyone notable though
FW - Nathan Eccleston - short career playing a handful of games for a myriad of teams, now playing non-league football
DF- Alex Cooper - played mainly lower league Scottish football, now playing in Ireland

Of that entire squad, only one made a double figure number of appearances for the Liverpool first team (Andre Wisdom, who played 14 times).  Only half a dozen have seen football in the top division of one of the big 5 leagues after they left, and for all bar 2 of those of those it's literally been a couple of games early on in their career.

The losing finalists, Arsenal, did better - they've had Jack Wilshire, Henri Lansbury, Luke Ayling (currently at Leeds), Kyle Bartley (stripeys), Francis Coquelin (Villareal) ... but it's still a similar story for the majority of their players.  Of the 32 players who were in both teams for that final, only Jack Wilshire and Francis Coquelin played more than 100 games for their parent club.

[eamonn]

Depends really, he looks very, very good for his age (based on youtube highlights and every review I can find) so chances are he'd only go up in value and is potentially the world class DM we could really do with.

I would really like to know the opinion of anyone who's actually seen him in more than highlights.

Unfortunately, our chief-scout John Blackwell departed some time ago.

[cdbearsfan]

Since leaving the EU we are only allowed to sign six under-21 non-UK/Ireland players per season (zero from outside the UK who are under 18, no exemptions at that age for Irish players). May as well get the best ones so as not to waste our quota. If that means spending a few quid, fuck it, we're minted.

[SoccerHQ]

Think this guy would be very good pick up if we're looking for plan B striker option off the bench. 23 and 16 Bundesliga goals for Stuttgart this season. Will be playing for Austria in the euros. He can do radical stuff like heading in a corner kick!

[Border villan]

Think this guy would be very good pick up if we're looking for plan B striker option off the bench. 23 and 16 Bundesliga goals for Stuttgart this season. Will be playing for Austria in the euros. He can do radical stuff like heading in a corner kick!

Thought we were after players who “fit in”. Scoring from a corner could upset a few of the regular squad.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Think this guy would be very good pick up if we're looking for plan B striker option off the bench. 23 and 16 Bundesliga goals for Stuttgart this season. Will be playing for Austria in the euros. He can do radical stuff like heading in a corner kick!

Thought we were after players who “fit in”. Scoring from a corner could upset a few of the regular squad.

The ball beating the first man will be progress.

[OCD]

The video I saw of Pape Sarr showed him taking free-kicks and penalties but has the frame of the imposing defensive midfielder that I think there is a general consesus that this is a position we should be looking at this summer. We would have to be pretty convinced by him though because at that age, a lot can still go wrong and he would probably need time to adapt.

[jwarry]

The video I saw of Pape Sarr showed him taking free-kicks and penalties but has the frame of the imposing defensive midfielder that I think there is a general consesus that this is a position we should be looking at this summer. We would have to be pretty convinced by him though because at that age, a lot can still go wrong and he would probably need time to adapt.

Indeed but he is older then Bellingham who seems to do ok

[chrisw1]

One thing I quite like doing from time to time is looking through old FA Youth Cup final squads and seeing what happened to all of the players.  E.g. if you look at the Liverpool FA Youth Cup winning side from 2009 - so all players who are either at, just or past, their peak now:

GK - Dean Bouzanis - now playing non-league football, probably made a living but nothing more
DF - Steven Irwin - knocked around Europe playing a handful of games for random lower league sides, now playing non-league
DF - Jack Robinson - one of the more succesful ones, played about 200 games in the Championship for various clubs
DF - Daniel Ayala - similar to Robinson - 250 games, mostly in the Championship
MF - Andre Wisdom - couple of seasons on loan in the Premier League, now dropped down to the Championship & doing alright
MF - David Amoo - journeyman career spent mainly in League One & Two
MF - Christopher Buchtmann - made a decent career playing in the Bundesliga.2 for St Pauli
FW - Lauri Dalla Valle - lower league journeyman career across Europe, neer played more than about 30 games for one club
FW - Tom Ince - arguably the most successful, 350-odd games coming mainly in the Championship
MF - Alexander Kačaniklić - looked like he might break through at Fulham for a bit, plays a bit for Sweden, not really played for anyone notable though
FW - Nathan Eccleston - short career playing a handful of games for a myriad of teams, now playing non-league football
DF- Alex Cooper - played mainly lower league Scottish football, now playing in Ireland

Of that entire squad, only one made a double figure number of appearances for the Liverpool first team (Andre Wisdom, who played 14 times).  Only half a dozen have seen football in the top division of one of the big 5 leagues after they left, and for all bar 2 of those of those it's literally been a couple of games early on in their career.

The losing finalists, Arsenal, did better - they've had Jack Wilshire, Henri Lansbury, Luke Ayling (currently at Leeds), Kyle Bartley (stripeys), Francis Coquelin (Villareal) ... but it's still a similar story for the majority of their players.  Of the 32 players who were in both teams for that final, only Jack Wilshire and Francis Coquelin played more than 100 games for their parent club.

This is an interesting post Algy, amazing how few make it.  Hopefully some of ours will - to me some of them look too good not to, but I guess it's better not to expect too much.

[Martin Carruthers]

Read somewhere that the clubs know that the vast majority of them have no hope of making it, but they need enough for a team to play with the couple that do have a chance. Quite a sad way of looking at it really.

[OCD]

The video I saw of Pape Sarr showed him taking free-kicks and penalties but has the frame of the imposing defensive midfielder that I think there is a general consesus that this is a position we should be looking at this summer. We would have to be pretty convinced by him though because at that age, a lot can still go wrong and he would probably need time to adapt.

Indeed but he is older then Bellingham who seems to do ok

This gets thrown out quite often but Bellingham is really a once in a generation talent. Before him, in English terms, it was Rooney. For every one of these there's many who won't make it. If you're spending £27m on an 18-year old, you had better be 100% confident in his technique, his temperament and his ability to adapt. Wasting £5m on Tishbola was a big enough waste of money.

[OCD]

Read somewhere that the clubs know that the vast majority of them have no hope of making it, but they need enough for a team to play with the couple that do have a chance. Quite a sad way of looking at it really.

And you often can't be sure which one's will make it. Some of the less talented one's will make up for their lesser natural abilities by working much harder than those who are talented.

We seem to be doing our best to sign as many of the top talents in each position as we can and that will make it interesting as hopefully they can push eachother on by training day in and day out with players of a high ability for their age group.