Thanks for giving us a tad of insight on the coaching levels fellas, interesting stuff.
The coaching is different out in Spain, but not hugely. One of the things that I've noticed having played in both countries, is the difference in attitudes of the players. When you walk onto a pitch and knock a ball about before you start warming up/training, over here you have a few digs at the goal keeper from range and whip a few crosses in and chat about MOTD, before you start preparing properly.
In Spain the young lads all walked on with a ball each, doing keepy ups to themselves or between eachother while chatting and then began knocking the ball around between eachother quickly and trying clever flicks and touches.
That mere attitude right from the moment they start playing football until the day they retire, naturally makes them more technical players but with less aggression physically weaker.
To be honest some of the Spaniards attitude probably wouldn't do our young players any harm and combine the best of both.
Anyways,
As far as the appointment goes, I'm not surprised and it's very good to see Rafa acting so quickly and ruthlessly in the areas at the bottom of Anfield.
The thing is, in modern football time is very limited. Rafa, in order to be successful, couldn't start right at the bottom and work up, for the time being, the first team and everything involved in the short term came first. With Parry seemingly having too much say in other matters it was something Rafa would have to leave and just work on "his team" like a coach rather than a long term manager. He's built a more than impressive first team from top to bottom in that 5 years, and now has been given the opportunity to run that right the way through the club. How exciting?
It is vital to the long term success of the club. Rafa has built a side that competes and now is starting to build a club that dominates. The importance of a good youth system and you only need to compare Barcelona/United/Arsenal to Chelsea/Real Madrid to see which sides have been successful for longer periods/to more of a degree, in the last 12 years of football.
And I wouldn't worry about Rafa doing things quickly. It's a great sign that Rafa wants to move fast and get things done to get it all in motion asap, but there will be little haste in his decisions; he's had plenty of times to ponder these things long before he signed the new contract.
Great news for the club though. This guy seems to have a very good C.V and will be working under Rafa and his men. The names of players speaks for themselves.
