Liverpool Beat Rivals to “Baby Didier Drogba”
Posted on 17. Jan, 2012 by Dominic Campbell in News
Liverpool look to have beaten rivals Manchester United and Manchester City to the signing of “baby Didier Drogba”, Abdul Aziz. The 14-year-old, who has been hailed as one of the biggest talents to emerge from Sweden, has been offered a two week trial at Melwood.
The Sierra Leone Swede has become one of the most talked about youngsters after his scoring record for both club and country (U15s) impressed scouts worldwide, with both Manchester United and Manchester City keen to land the youngster.
However, Kenny Dalglish was quick to beat his rivals to the punch by offering the prodigy a two week trial with the academy; further laying down foundations for the club’s future.
Many would argue that Liverpool is not the club for a fielding startlet given the club’s reluctance to blood its young talent, but the the reality of the matter is that there are few academies better at developing young players than that of Liverpool Football Club.
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37 Responses to “Liverpool Beat Rivals to “Baby Didier Drogba””
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Pete
17. Jan, 2012
Last statement is very true.
strebby
17. Jan, 2012
i think in the absence of european football, the cups have become a priority this season, i think this is the reason for the reluctance to blood the youngsters, if, IF we get into europe next season then i expect our priorities to change and then the cups can again be used to blood a few youngsters here and there.
anfield rd dreamer
17. Jan, 2012
Welcome to Anfield.
And think you’ll find that since Kennys return we have a brilliant record in the league for debuts/appearances by players under 21.
Tony
17. Jan, 2012
Yet another top kid on the way, we have loads of them now!!!!. If only half of them make it the future looks very good!!!
Andy mac
17. Jan, 2012
Are we just signing young strikers?
BongoBONGO
18. Jan, 2012
I know for a fact that neither Manchester club were interested in this player.
fid1892
18. Jan, 2012
of course you do ……
Bill
18. Jan, 2012
You would wouldn’t you? Plonker
Rhyso
18. Jan, 2012
Bongo Bongo, another disillusioned Manc, don’t tell me you’re a cleaner and you clean both Fergie’s and Mancini’s houses and they’ve both confided in you. The futures bright the futures Liverpool!
Dave McQueen
18. Jan, 2012
I know pep said we have the 2nd best academy – however has it actually improved since the Heighway era? Then we produced gerrard, Owen, fowler, carra..only really Kelly has so far made the step up with most others disappointing. We need to look at more effectIve ways of managing the progression from prospect to star.
anfield rd dreamer
18. Jan, 2012
Dave what’s in the academy now won’t be ready to step up for season or two yet, you’re right in saying that was our academy’s best era so far but you can only really judge how well an academy class did when the players have reached their mid 20s when you can see if they’ve lived up to their potential or not. That’s how we know the academy was awful for a period 5-10 years looking at the players who came through at that time, Zac Whitbread an Stephen Warnock are the best of that generation, by time they’re in mid 20s can imagine Wisdom, Coady, Flanno, Kelly, Robinson, Gulacsi, Sterling, Silva, Suso an Morgan (possibly more) will all be playing regularly for us, another prem side or a side in a top foreign league. That’ll be when we know how well the.academy is doing now.
Sam
18. Jan, 2012
I think the point he’s making is that nothing has come out over the past 5 years. By your logic there should have been some fantastic class of youngsters between the Carra-Gerrard class and the names you mentioned.
Who came out? Pacheco? We have not developed any talent since the Heighway era.
KJ
18. Jan, 2012
I think it’s all great that we’re looking to the future but we then should start using them.
anfield rd dreamer
18. Jan, 2012
Sam did you miss me saying the academy was rubbish for years? I did point that out, but its good now!
anfield rd dreamer
18. Jan, 2012
All the changes to the academy happened within the last 2 years so will be no sign of the benefit of those changes in players older than 20 yet.
Dave McQueen
18. Jan, 2012
Dreamer – could well be that our academy is great. However no evidence really. We heard all of the hype about players like whitbread as well. Where are the generation that won the FA Cup?! Anderson is at forest, hamill wolves. Spearing is around but very few have done anything despite being called a golden generation. Just feel we need to revise out priorities and the way we introduce / push the kids on.
anfield rd dreamer
18. Jan, 2012
Dave your talking about the generation before the changes, Rafa made some drastic changes during his final year, and FSG and Comolli made further improvements when they took over, those changes are what has got everybody talking about how good the CURRENT set up is. But you can’t judge the current academy in the way you’re wanting, as none of the academy graduates who have experienced the changes are old enough to be regular squad members yet. The likes of Kelly, Flanno an Robinson have started though and Wisdom, Coady, Sterling and others have made the bench in competitive fixtures as well.
anfield rd dreamer
18. Jan, 2012
And in my opinion Anderson and/or Hammill would have been better options in the squad than El Zhar.
Bill
18. Jan, 2012
Just watching Hammill playing for Wolves against Birmingham, and not overly impressed after 50 mins of play
anfield rd dreamer
18. Jan, 2012
But you were impressed by El Zhar Bill? Wasn’t saying Hammill was good enough for our starting 11 or even second 11 but he could have fulfilled the squad player role filled by El Zhar and saved on wages and the couple of million Rafa bought El Zhar for.
Rafa
19. Jan, 2012
@anfield rd dreamer, great point, having the promising young players bedded into the squad as a minimum of ‘backup’ or ‘rotation’ players will be great for the club, something kenny seems very willing to do, Kelly, Robinson and Flanagan have good potential, at the very minimum they can be ‘squad players’ for the foreseeable future, this saves up a lot of money compared with acquiring the, el zhar, poulsen, voranin, degen’s…backup players that command wages well beyond there ability, and sometimes transfer fees beyond there ability, the money saved here can be put towards acquiring players with proven class, or younger players with outstanding potential e.g the hazard’s, and Lucas’s
Pete
19. Jan, 2012
Great discussion going on here…
I think it was Dreamer who said he could see several of our kids playing regularly for us when they are in their mid 20′s.
Liverpool’s youth foundations have an incredible reputation we all know this but if kids such as Wisdom, Sterling, Morgan, Coady and Suso don’t get a chance soon I can’t see any of them being a part of LFC’s future.
These kids are incredibly young so I will use Flanno and Robinson as an example. If they don’t get more chances now, I doubt they will be at the club when they are in their mid 20′s. They will most likely try to find first team football somewhere else.
That is my fear for Kelly. He will find himself on the bench as he gets older as he turns 22 and 23. I doubt he will want to sit on the bench his whole career. It doesn’t matter if he was a Liverpool lad he will surely leave to find 1st team football.
In recent years we are yet to see a player like Owen, who was thrown into first team football due to Fowlers injury. He made an instant impact. Since the days of Owen have you seen any youngsters make such an impact and force himself on the team sheet?
anfield rd dreamer
19. Jan, 2012
Hear what you’re saying but as was shown with Insua you don’t just take a young talent an throw them in at deep end to sink or swim, in my opinion Insua was a real talent with potential who needed to develop further but because he was thrown in playing week in week out all his short comings were brutally exposed before he had chance to work on them and overcome them on the training ground. For all the hype across the park over Rodwell an Barkley they are being eased in gently Rodwell slowly making more appearances each season an Barkley “the next big thing” has only made 5 league appearances.
anfield rd dreamer
19. Jan, 2012
By the way although Owen had made lots of cameos and stuff for us it wasnt really till the 01/02 season when he was 20/21 that he really became a starting 11 regular for us, that’s what was saying about slow introduction, he was 17 when he scored in his league debut but 4 full seasons of development, cameos and slow introduction even though he was scoring from day 1. Fans these days just need to be bit more patient.
anfield rd dreamer
19. Jan, 2012
Although saying that could of been injuries that limited his appearances during those years!
anfield rd dreamer
19. Jan, 2012
Although in all fairness may well have been more the injuries that limited Owens appearances thinking about it!
Pete
19. Jan, 2012
20/21 years old is alright. I can’t wait to see someone like Morgan or Coady when they are 21. However you said 25, surely they wont stick around for that long if they aren’t playing first team football.
anfield rd dreamer
19. Jan, 2012
Yeah they will start breaking through then but its only later when we can see how well they’ve done over a period of time that we will be able to tell how well the academy is doing now, how many times in football do you see “the next big thing” some talented young guy breaking through an then few years later its like “whatever happened to….” and they’re a squad player in league 1 or the Greek league or something.
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