the allegation is that hamberg is a dead man walking in his current role, as he was a parry hire and a bad one at that. if that's the case it's been all rhetoric and no real progress.
yes - the Academy scouts with its own budget, and for example, bought in Adjarevic and Dalla Valle with its own cash, as well as many others. There have even been allegations that Parry was behind the pursuit of Aaron Ramsay in the summer.
meanwhile, Rafa etc have no input to the recruitment at lower levels, and it seems they don't have any input into selection and scouting criteria, or agree any aspect of the coaching curriculum. but that's not proven - it's based on speculation if i'm honest as nobody's written anything definitive on that issue.
but yes, there are separate scouting set-ups, and separate budgets from what i can gather mate.
I can obviously understand that on the one hand, for continuity's sake it doesn't necessarily make sense for Rafa to have total control over the Academy.
But on the other hand, it also makes zero sense for the Academy to have a separate recruitment department (including budget), and minimal involvement from Melwood.
And clearly things will not be resolved until we have a decent working relationship between Chief Exec. and Manager, which seems impossible between Benitez and Parry.
However, in theory there must be a workable middle-ground.
There's no doubt that to keep pace with the world's best, we have to be signing players from around the world aged 15-30.
(By the way, what are the rules for eligibility?
Lauri Dalle Valle and Alex Kacaniclic are not from Merseyside, but they are on the Academy's books, but I thought there was something about players having to come from within a certain radius of the Academy or something like that.)
Surely there should be a Chief Youth Scout who recruits both for the Reserves and for the Academy, not one for each.
The question is, how would this work?
What are your thoughts Roy?
We do have a total of nearly 50 players within the Academy and the 1st team squad who have almost no chance of making a 1st team start this season, which does not compare too well with about 35 at both Arsenal and Man Utd.
But to be fair, Arsenal's Academy is hardly functioning perfectly, with A Cole the only graduate that has become a 1st regular.
Also, their reserves and under18s seem to function in the same way that ours do, with players tending to play for one or the other but seldom both.
Utd's on the other hand seems different.
They actually have very few players on the books that aren't either knocking on the door of the 1st team or yet to graduate from the Academy.
But their Academy hasn't been at all prolific either.
The Nevilles, Beckham, Scholes etc all emerged before the Academy system cam into place, in the same way that our little flurry of local talent through the 90s did, and there's not been much since.
So whilst it's not difficult to argue that the number of youngsters Macia and Benitez are bringing straight to Anfield must be stifling the chances for Academy graduates, with Asdarevic and Ecclestone the obvious examples, Utd and Arsenal are not faring much better even though they are not making the same mistake.
Is the Academy system itself at fault?
Man City and Boro are examples which seem to say no, but there's certainly a lot of talk about it around England at the moment.
Anyway, I'd much rather see our reserves lining up like this (for example):
1. Diego
2. Darby
3. Insua
4. Kelly
5. Wisdom
6. Irwin
7. Amoo
8. Spearing
9. Ecclestone
10. Pacheco
11. Asdarevic
Subs:
Gulacsi
Mackay-Steven
Buchtmann
Ince
Pepper
Dalla Valle
Kacaniklic
The players who train at Melwood that are subsequently dropping out are:
Huth, Duran, Simon, Crowther, Brouwer, San Jose, Bruna, Saric, Mendy, Flora, Weijl and Ayala.
I know a few people are excited about Weijl, one or two still think Bruna has talent, and Saric and Flora have had no chance through injury thus far. But would anyone really give a fuck if that lot were told to pack their bags?
I know I wouldn't.
But in order for so many Academy players to have regular action for the reserves as well (which would be great in my opinion, since 20 games a season is not enough for a hungry 17 year-old), surely Ablett's gotta have much closer contact with them?
And how could that be with the Academy in Kirkby?