Topic: So what are these Youth/Reserve Lads like?

[LiverpoolPlus]

Did Sam Magri get sent back to Pompey?

We could not agree a deal with them.

[revelationx]

Can anyone give me a list of all the players who have current scholarships at LFC? Is this available?

[Juan Loco]

Did Sam Magri get sent back to Pompey?

Couldn't agree a deal with their administrators apparently. Think he's out of contract in the summer as well, so it's a "watch this space" deal.

[cptrios]

Bulgaria or something is in the EU since 2007 alongside Romania It's the work permit that is being a hurdle at the moment.

Yeah, they're in the EU and I think they get full work rights this summer. It'll be good to get Bijev back over here - he just made the 1st team bench at Fortuna for the first time so he must be doing something right.

[trembles97]

Speaking of Lewie Hatch, he's confirmed on twitter that he won't be a Liverpool player next season. Gutted for him, I really thought his versatility would have gotten him a contract. Especially since he's been at the club for 12 years.

[iamrobk]

Speaking of Lewie Hatch, he's confirmed on twitter that he won't be a Liverpool player next season. Gutted for him, I really thought his versatility would have gotten him a contract. Especially since he's been at the club for 12 years.

just saw that myself. So, so sad to see. I really feel sorry for him and the others who didn't get contracts.

[SF Red]

Yeah, they're in the EU and I think they get full work rights this summer. It'll be good to get Bijev back over here - he just made the 1st team bench at Fortuna for the first time so he must be doing something right.

I think that was the plan with Bijev, but the UK has extended work visa restrictions until end of 2013. 

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/2011/november/44-labour-restrictions

Does that mean he has to work outside the UK unless he can get a visa as an exceptional talent?

[scatman]

I think that was the plan with Bijev, but the UK has extended work visa restrictions until end of 2013. 

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/2011/november/44-labour-restrictions

Does that mean he has to work outside the UK unless he can get a visa as an exceptional talent?

Unfortunately for things like this we are not Man Utd

[Juan Loco]

Speaking of Lewie Hatch, he's confirmed on twitter that he won't be a Liverpool player next season. Gutted for him, I really thought his versatility would have gotten him a contract. Especially since he's been at the club for 12 years.

Sad for him. Seems to have done a tidy job in a number of positions this year.

Hope he finds himself another club.

[cptrios]

I think that was the plan with Bijev, but the UK has extended work visa restrictions until end of 2013. 

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/2011/november/44-labour-restrictions

Does that mean he has to work outside the UK unless he can get a visa as an exceptional talent?

Oh that's total shit. Spending his first two years away from the club would not be a good way to start his Liverpool career. Hopefully we can work something out!

[Fromola]

Speaking of Lewie Hatch, he's confirmed on twitter that he won't be a Liverpool player next season. Gutted for him, I really thought his versatility would have gotten him a contract. Especially since he's been at the club for 12 years.

Surprised at that as Marsh always speaks highly of him.

[kopitecrash]

Lewis Hatch when I first saw him, was excellent. He played against United's u18/16 side in that demolition and he pulled strings. Thought he was a good talent myself who should've got more time in midfield - but this under 18 side have a lot of talent there - which by the way, probably stands them in good stead for the Next Gen tournament. But I hope he forges a career, really do.

[jimmyjr86]

Lewis Hatch when I first saw him, was excellent. He played against United's u18/16 side in that demolition and he pulled strings. Thought he was a good talent myself who should've got more time in midfield - but this under 18 side have a lot of talent there - which by the way, probably stands them in good stead for the Next Gen tournament. But I hope he forges a career, really do.

another case of injuries stunting the development of a player. Shame really. Hope he makes a career out of it.

[babraham]

Couldn't agree a deal with their administrators apparently. Think he's out of contract in the summer as well, so it's a "watch this space" deal.

So we'll just pick him up for free then.

[liverpool8348]

another case of injuries stunting the development of a player. Shame really. Hope he makes a career out of it.

i really feel for the kid, and i think he would have made it through a year or 2 earlier but the talent where Hatch could fit in is quite outstanding. we now have the likes of dunn, lussey and maybe texeira in CM etc, fantastic wingers like Ibe and an abundance of talented RBs. 

[gazzathered]

I think Ngoo could be a very good player for us if he improves in front of goal. Reminds me of adebayor

[babraham]

U18s play Huddersfield at home on Saturday at 11:00.

Reserves play away at Aston Villa Monday night at 19:00.

It looks like both games will be on LFCTV?

[iamrobk]

U18s play Huddersfield at home at 11:00.

Reserves play away at Aston Villa Monday night at 19:00.

It looks like both games will be on LFCTV?

The U18's are tomorrow?  Be interesting to see if any of the younger players stay with them, or if it'll be more like the lineup from the rest of the year.  Reserves game should be good as well.

[jimmyjr86]

U18's play on saturday.

[Saul Goodman]

Kenny's comments on Raheem.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, Dalglish was quizzed on 17-year-old Raheem Sterling, who he handed a debut as a substitute when Wigan visited Anfield last weekend.

The boss said: "We need to have common sense and make sure we do a professional job on any of the kids coming in.

"Anybody who comes here must have a chance of being a professional footballer, but he's got a much better chance if we face reality. We've got to be realistic with him.

"At the same time we've got to be appreciative and realise it doesn't matter what age they are if they're good enough.

"But there is a bit of time to go yet on all of the kids. Last year we threw in Jack Robbo and Flanno and it never fazed them, but physically they were a bit stronger than Raheem.

"Every case is going to be different so we've got to look at them all individually and manage them, because we want them here for a long time."

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/kd-andy-nerves-could-be-good

[jimmyjr86]

Thanks for posting that Saul. Does look like its gonna be the softly softly approach with Raheem.

[bigbear]

Sad for him. Seems to have done a tidy job in a number of positions this year.

Hope he finds himself another club.

Injuries have held him back over the last few years. He was well rated a few year ago.Hopefully he can maintian his fitness and keep in football somewhere.

[babraham]

The U18's are tomorrow?  Be interesting to see if any of the younger players stay with them, or if it'll be more like the lineup from the rest of the year.  Reserves game should be good as well.

U18's play on saturday.

Yeah sorry, Saturday.

[iamrobk]

Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but Chelsea and PSG are officially in next years NextGen series.  I know Arsenal and Real Madrid have been heavily rumored to be joining as well, so maybe they'll be next.

[Juan Loco]

Am I right in thinking it's going up to 24 teams next year?

[iamrobk]

Am I right in thinking it's going up to 24 teams next year?

That's what I remember hearing too, so it seems to be the plan, anyway.  I'm guessing the current 16 (maybe 1 or 2 of the smaller teams will drop out, but who knows), plus Chelsea and PSG, most likely Arsenal and Real Madrid, and... ?  If I were them I'd target another Spanish team, another German team, and another Italian team, since they'll only have 1 of each (well, 2 Spanish if you include Madrid).

Edit: Just re-read their tweet.  Makes it pretty clear the current 16 teams have all signed up for next year as well, which is great to hear.

Edit 2: A tweet from the 28th says it'll be all 16 current teams plus 8 more.  So 24 teams for next year is confirmed.

[Juan Loco]

Think United are looking to join next year aren't they? Be surprised if the other two big clubs in Portugal aren't looking to join up.

There's no one from the old Yugoslavia yet either. I doubt they'll struggle to make up the numbers. Juve, Lyon, Milan, Dortmund, Valencia, Anderlecht, the greek sides, Shakhtar - there's a load of big/rich clubs not in it. I'm sure there are plenty of clubs as well who would like to sell off their youth to keep going. I can't imagine there's a lot of money in Hungarian football for example, so someone like Ferencvaros might think "Yeah, there's an opportunity to sell a player or two". .. Obviously that needn't be Hungary. Could easily be Bulgaria, Romanian etc.

Won't be too long before it's same amount of teams as the Champions League proper.

[Saul Goodman]

An Arsenal fan I know said a decent source for stuff relating to them on twitter said they will be taking part next year.

Decent blog piece here with the extra teams to make 24 expected to be Arsenal, AC Milan, Athletic Bilbao, Paris Saint-German, Olympiacos, CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid. United name still not being included is a surprise but it's all unconfirmed as of yet.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/28/nextgen-series-represents-footballs-future-but-what-next-for-the-under-19-champions-league/

[iamrobk]

Yeah, I remember reading United wanted to join as well.  After seeing Sporting boss the tournament, I bet Benfica and Porto want to join to show off their own academies.

I'll admit I was definitely a bit concerned at first that a few of the teams from this year wouldn't want to bother with it again (like Basel, Molde, Rosenborg), but yeah, doesn't seem they'll have any problem getting to 24 for next year, and I would imagine 32 for 2013-14.  It'll be interesting to see what they do from there, if they'll start to kick out poor performers for more prestigious names, or what.

Also, random, but I just checked the Portuguese league table out of curiosity, and Braga are in 1st.  Wow.  Hate them for all the diving they did against us, but fair play to them for being in 1st.

[iamrobk]

An Arsenal fan I know said a decent source for stuff relating to them on twitter said they will be taking part next year.

Decent blog piece here with the extra teams to make 24 expected to be Arsenal, AC Milan, Athletic Bilbao, Paris Saint-German, Olympiacos, CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid. United name still not being included is a surprise but it's all unconfirmed as of yet.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/28/nextgen-series-represents-footballs-future-but-what-next-for-the-under-19-champions-league/

Hadn't seen that before, so thanks for posting it.  Interesting read.  The TV deals part is interesting.  I would imagine that we'd like to keep the TV rights to our matches (seeing as it's pretty obvious we want them for the first team as well), and I wonder if we'll be able to in the long run, or if we'll have no choice but to lose them to Sky or whoever.

[greenstien]

I think that was the plan with Bijev, but the UK has extended work visa restrictions until end of 2013. 

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/2011/november/44-labour-restrictions

Does that mean he has to work outside the UK unless he can get a visa as an exceptional talent?

Hopefully he will start to get  first team football in his time away and develop his talent in competitive mtches.

[LiverpoolPlus]

Lewis Hatch has suffered from the 'Steven Irwin' syndrome. Always filling in different positions and never getting the chance of making one spot his own. Hope that makes sense.

[KennyDaggers]

Think United are looking to join next year aren't they? Be surprised if the other two big clubs in Portugal aren't looking to join up.

There's no one from the old Yugoslavia yet either. I doubt they'll struggle to make up the numbers. Juve, Lyon, Milan, Dortmund, Valencia, Anderlecht, the greek sides, Shakhtar - there's a load of big/rich clubs not in it. I'm sure there are plenty of clubs as well who would like to sell off their youth to keep going. I can't imagine there's a lot of money in Hungarian football for example, so someone like Ferencvaros might think "Yeah, there's an opportunity to sell a player or two". .. Obviously that needn't be Hungary. Could easily be Bulgaria, Romanian etc.

Won't be too long before it's same amount of teams as the Champions League proper.

United and Everton either enter teams in the South American version and or the prestigious Dallas Cup.

They have done for a whilst although I wouldn't be surprised to see them both move on to this now.

[Fromola]

Lewis Hatch has suffered from the 'Steven Irwin' syndrome. Always filling in different positions and never getting the chance of making one spot his own. Hope that makes sense.

Probably his undoing as as as second year scholar is he could only play for the under 18s as a fill-in player when there was injuries. If everyone was fit he wouldn't make the team.

Hopefully he can make a career out of playing somewhere else.

[Cpt_Reina]

There's an interview with Dunn on LFCTV that will probably be shown before the match tomorrow. Think he comes across as a throughly nice lad in it. Seems to really be enjoying his football at Liverpool.

And why wouldn't he be, he's had a good season all told. Despite being moved around here there and everywhere he's still shone through as one of, if not the, brightest talent in that U18s side.

Its a shame he's had to spend so much time filling in at LB really, he's done a good job there and it shows his versatility but he's a different animal when give that license to attack further up the pitch. Be interesting to see how many goals he's scored this season, Im guessing it'll be approaching double figures. Not bad considering he's been down the other end of the pitch a lot of the time.

[sminp]

An Arsenal fan I know said a decent source for stuff relating to them on twitter said they will be taking part next year.

Decent blog piece here with the extra teams to make 24 expected to be Arsenal, AC Milan, Athletic Bilbao, Paris Saint-German, Olympiacos, CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid. United name still not being included is a surprise but it's all unconfirmed as of yet.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/28/nextgen-series-represents-footballs-future-but-what-next-for-the-under-19-champions-league/

Am I missing something? That article says the original 16 teams have signed up then names 7 new ones and says that makes 24 teams. However, 16 + 7 = 23

[chris18lfc]

Am I missing something? That article says the original 16 teams have signed up then names 7 new ones and says that makes 24 teams. However, 16 + 7 = 23

"Warburton has already managed to sign up Chelsea for the next three seasons"

[sminp]

"Warburton has already managed to sign up Chelsea for the next three seasons"

I'd counted Chelsea, somehow managed to only count six instead of seven teams in the list just after though.

[leroy]

Probably his undoing as as as second year scholar is he could only play for the under 18s as a fill-in player when there was injuries. If everyone was fit he wouldn't make the team.

Hopefully he can make a career out of playing somewhere else.

I think that's a bit unfair on him to be honest.  Every time I've watched the 18's he's been one of the better performers.

[richmiller1]

An Arsenal fan I know said a decent source for stuff relating to them on twitter said they will be taking part next year.

Decent blog piece here with the extra teams to make 24 expected to be Arsenal, AC Milan, Athletic Bilbao, Paris Saint-German, Olympiacos, CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid. United name still not being included is a surprise but it's all unconfirmed as of yet.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/03/28/nextgen-series-represents-footballs-future-but-what-next-for-the-under-19-champions-league/

A piece similar piece has been posted prepared by ESPN and  put onto the nextgen website

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1040938/mark-lomas:-prestige-not-pounds-key-for-nextgen-development?cc=5739#

This tournament really does fascinate me.

It will be interesting to see how they go about structuring a 24 team tournament. It’s difficult to see how that can be achieved without going to 4 groups of six teams and having the top two in each group qualify for the knockout stages. Not that the extra games wouldn’t be welcome.

If they stick with 4 team groups then it would be six groups and presumably only winners and the two best runners up, which doesn’t strike me as especially satisfactory.

It will also be interesting to see how they go about resolving the other keys issues of who gets to enter and who gets the TV rights.

The stance of United in all of this is a little perplexing.  If they don’t enter this year and the other rumours are true then it essentially only leaves the likes of them, Bayern, Roma and Juve as the ‘historic giants’ not in the competition. In short the tournament will have the critical mass of big clubs it needs to be massively attractive. With six other English teams already seemingly signed up for the medium term you would have to think that this puts them at a slight disadvantage when it comes to hovering up talent in the 16-19 bracket or even holding on to talent they already have. Also, whilst you would think the size of the club will ensure they are welcomed into the tournament as soon as they fancy the idea, with six English teams already there organisers might have cause to think twice about allowing the tournament to be further dominated (in numbers) by the English contingent. 

If, as speculated in the ESPN article, the tournament does eventually affiliate with UEFA then things really could get interesting. I can’t see entry being allowed to remain on an invite only basis perpetually or for potentially 7 out of a max of 32 places going to English sides each year. Platini is unlikely tolerate such a rich nations/big club circle jerk for too long. Quotas and domestic qualifying criteria? Now that really would really shake things up for domestic academies at u18 level.

It’s also difficult to see TV rights not eventually being sold off collectively, but at the same time you would have to think that the bigger clubs with their own TV channels would resist this.