I'm sure you'd agree, young players need a number of first team minutes to develop, so the clearer the path, the better for them. If they have to displace the players we have upfront at the moment, together with the strong likelihood we'll be signing another top attacking player in the summer, it's going to make it very difficult for even a potentially, very good youngster to get those necessary minutes. Of course the manager will want to find a balance, but it's difficult at a club like Liverpool, where the pressure and demand for trophies are only going to increase.
Robbie Fowler was exceptional at a very young age so I do think he'd have made it anyway, but they are going to have to be close to that level for youngsters who play in an attacking position to make it here.
Absolutely, and the best ones get that.
It makes me feel old talking about players from the 90s but I’ve watched us for over 20 years now and there’s not a single player who we let go early who has gone elsewhere and been a world beater. They do it here, or they don’t do it. And we’ve had plenty who have, which suggests to me we know what we’re doing with youngsters. If you’re too good for the reserves/U23s you’ll get opportunities in the first team, that’s how it’s always been. Our front 3 doesn’t change that.
Brewster has only just turned 18. He’s pretty much literally a kid. If him or his agent are looking at it thinking ‘he’ll never get a chance there’ then he’ll never make it anywhere near the top level because it’s a bizarre attitude to have at that age. We couldn’t have done much more up to this point to show him how important we think he is as a youngster, so if he does decide to up sticks and go to an average German side because of his better mates doing it elsewhere then it says a lot more about him/his agent than it does about youngsters getting opportunities at Liverpool.
