[quote author=RolandG link=topic=40317.msg1106728#msg1106728 date=1274337834]
I believe that we have more than a few youngsters who will make the grade. The problem last season was that we were almost always under pressure to produce winning results and had a poor season. That makes it so much harder for Rafa to play any of the youngsters.
It's also one of the reasons why I said in another post that Rafa not having much to spend might force his hand at speeding up the development of the young players because he will be forced to play them. Game time is the only thing that will build up their confidence and experience. They have certainly showed quality in the Reserves.
I'm excited by the likes of Mavenga, Amoo, Ngoo, Ecclestone, Ince, Dalla Valle, Bruna and Kakaniklic to name a few. Pacheco, Ayala, Irwin and Kelly will make the step up this season. They have shown quality when given limited opportunities. I haven't had the opportunity to see the young lad we got from QPR (Sterling?) play or the other from Charlton (Jonjo) and both are England internationals. They come highly rated. Our youth policy is going to save us millions in a few season and with the ex Barca man running things, it can only improve.
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Great post. If Rafa were to leave tomorrow, the youth setup is going to be his legacy. We are still not at the level of Arsenal or Barcelona but we know have a host of players who are going to have a future in the upper Championship or lowel level PL clubs. And if we handle our sales well, we can make a significant amount of money through such talents. We can also use these players as makeshifts in attracting the next Jonjo Shelvey to Liverpool.
As Roland pointer out I think Pacheco, Ayala, Irwin, Kelly are going to make it as squad players at LFC. Apart from them Gulacsi has a very very good chance. Nemeth is either going to make it here or we are going to get at least a couple of million for him.
Outside of the names in the above posts, We also have a couple of very good midfielders who unfortunately got two major injuries - Poloskei is one of them. I forgot the name of the other . We got him from Malaga, I think. If they can stay injury free, I think both of them can have careers in the highest level.
Andre Wisdom, Conor Coady, Jack Robinson, and Flanagan are other really good youngsters who look very promising. The new kid - Jesus Fernandez - from Cadiz (no sure about that) is supposed to be a bit special.