Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 12:34 ambigmick wrote:My concerns with the youth development side of things at Liverpool is fairly predictably that we seem to me to cast the net as far as we can throw it, without paying any attention to the fingerlings with growth spurt potential which lurk in the shadows. Very often they don't shine as brightly at such a young age as some of these fish from distant waters, their shimmer doesn't quite catch the light to such a brilliant effect. They may not appear to jink in and out of the shadows with quite the same fleetness of movement, nor do they sound quite so exotic, their names not quite so intoxicatingly glamorous.
There are just a few of these fingerlings though that have something, although it may not be obvious to one whose head is turned by colour and pattern. Lurking in the colder water, in the shadows means they don't always show the potential of their brilliance, but with polish and perseverance it can shine through. They have a tenacious quality, a hardiness and a willingness to survive that often their tropical cousins lack. And they have a fearlessness, a bravery and an understanding of the way things are which is instinctive, a genetic knowledge which can't be taught.
For 20 years we have searched the globe for the brightest starlets. We've cast our net far and wide, on every continent and just occasionally we've turned up something. Many times under closer inspection, under the intensity of the microscope we have been disappointed, but still we persist. It is pertinent to remember though that those pioneering scouts who have circumnavigated the globe in search of treasure, have so often been usurped by the old boys who've stayed local, braving the icy winds down the local park. No fancy hotels for them as they've endured the kick and rush of the uneducated and the great unwashed, watching in the shadows as those aforementioned fingerlings battle for prominence.
And out of the swarming masses of youngsters who "lack technical ability", who are "victims of a failed and broken youth system in this country", against all the odds one or two have come through. The Fowlers, the Owens and the Rush's from down the road, and of course more recently Jamie Carragher. And who could forget the most brilliant one of all, the one who has with polish matured into the most prized catch in the land? Envied by every single other football club in World football, and born however far Huyton is from from Anfield (I won't pretend I know).
Obviously, for every fingerling that has the potential to become Steven Gerrard, there are hundreds of thousands who have the potential to become nothing in a football sense. They are there though those more brilliant ones, they always have been and they always will be. I hope whoever this bloke is he remembers that on every park in the country there are hundreds of thousands of kids playing every weekend, they may not shine as bright today, but one day some of them will. We must remember to look in the shadows as well, it seems to me like we've forgotten that sometimes.
Did I tell anyoine it was national analogy day in New Zealand
your just tryna justify getting caught watching kids at the park there mate
watching in the shadows
silly c...