Liverpool's recently installed director of football strategy, Damien Comolli has outlined his ambition to attract top young British talent at Anfield.
Comolli wants Liverpool to find the next generation of Jamie Carraghers and Steven Gerrards. He appears intent on continuing a trend begun under Rafa Benitez of focusing on young British youth. In the past year, Liverpool have signed the likes of Danny Wilson and Jonjo Shelvey who have both played for Roy Hodgson's side this season and in a younger age bracket, they have attracted the likes of Raheem Sterling.
Talking to the Liverpool website, Comolli explained, "We really want to concentrate on getting young English or British kids. I think that's very important if we want to keep an identity to get those kids into the football club,
"Usually the big European clubs don't come into England to get players so there will be massive competition in England with all the other big clubs, and then if we need to go abroad or decide to bring in a young kid from a foreign country because we think he's a top talent then there will be competition with other clubs.
"There are two things. You need to spot them, identify them, make sure they've got the right attitude, the right mentality, the right spirit that you want them around on a day-to-day basis.
"The second thing is convincing them to come. That requires a lot of time, it requires a skill set from the scouts, or from myself."
Comolli believes that Kop legend Kenny Dalglish can play a major role in youth recruitment.
Comolli commented, "I'm sure Kenny can have a massive impact if he meets the kid or his parents,
"That's almost the most difficult part. Spotting a fantastic player is not that difficult, convincing them to come to us, that comes back to competition and that can be more difficult. We will have to be very, very good at it."
No comments:
Post a Comment