The Future of Transfers

MATTY’s ARTICLE PART 2

Full disclosure, this is an initial comment that is now turning into an article. I saw a
comment made by Bayern Munich sporting director Max Eberl, who together with manager
Vincent Kompany has revitalized their club this season. The comment, or rather the statement if
philosophy moving forward for Bayern Munich, is that they will only spend money for top tier
players, players who have “top talent” who can make a serious short-term and long-term
improvement to the team. In recent years, these bigger signings have been Harry Kane, Michael
Olise, and Luis Diaz. Jonathan Tah joined them for free but is still a big piece of the puzzle for
the new-look Bayern. However, instead of wasting money on depth players like Sacha Boey,
Joao Palhinha, and Nico Jackson, all of whom are either loaned away from the club or surely
won’t be back next season, Bayern is looking to the development of their youth team to fill in the
gaps. Even with a smaller squad, Bayern have flown high this season because of the promotion
and development of players like Tom Bischof and Lennart Karl, filling in for players like Jamal
Musiala, Alphonso Davies and Alex Pavlovic, established first team stars who have suffered
injuries during this season. They’ve given ten academy players their professional debut this
season. From the perspective of a Liverpool fan, I look to ask and answer two main questions: is
this possible in the Premier League or elsewhere, and if so, is this the way Liverpool should
move forward in a world where the financial gap is only going to grow wider between even big
clubs like us and Bayern and the petrol states of City and PSG?

I think Oscar’s getting hard just thinking about this, so I’ll continue. On paper, the strategy
Bayern is currently using is brilliant. It creates the age-old feel-good story of academy graduates
becoming a distinctive part of the first team. It also saves money for the club, allowing it to
compete at the top end of a perpetually more expensive market for the top players. Speaking of
PSG, they’ve adopted a similar strategy, finally taking advantage of the fact that Clairefontaine is
the best development center in the world for young footballers and has been for over 20 years. It
is the heart of the French talent factory that’s produced a World Cup champion with the potential
to win another one. Finally promoting their youth, blending it with smart spending on younger
players who fit the system of Luis Enrique, a manager known for both his youth development
and his strict adherence to the Spanish tiki-taka system. That’s the reason PSG look more
dominant now than they ever did in their infamous “Bling-bling” era. However, it is important to
acknowledge that both Bayern and PSG play in leagues that are uncompetitive. They can get
away with what they do knowing there will rarely ever be a challenge to their domestic throne.
They can afford to trust youth and develop players because there isn’t nearly as much pressure.
So what if the youth make a mistake? The club will finish 20 points clear regardless

The Premier League is the most pressure-packed environment in world football. All the
talent is concentrated so highly in this league because money talks, and the collective Premier
League has way more money than any other. Every mistake will get overanalyzed by pundits the
world over. Every match that isn’t a win will have fans in hysteria. Why trust your academy
when 90% of football players practically grovel at the feet of England, begging for a chance to
play in the biggest league in the world? I’d argue that there’s a team already in the Premier
League following this model and doing so quite well: Manchester City. Their academy has either
funded major signings or made significant contributions to trophy-winning seasons in the form
of Phil Foden and Nico O’Reilly. They’ve bought young talent, developed it, and either sent it
along or developed it all the way into superstar material. City’s willingness to use O’Reilly this
season will likely win them the Premier League in addition to the FA Cup already secured
through his goals. James Trafford, the goalkeeper who played the full 90 in that cup win, was a
City academy graduate as well. Contrast that to Mikel Arteta refusing to use the talents of Myles
Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, only to see injuries and a lack of motivation cause his team to
sputter and break yet again in another crucial moment. I suppose the question is the same that
we’ve had for a while now: how best to use an academy, and how best to develop it?

I remember the last season of Klopp, when injuries forced him to use a bunch of youth
players to great success. Quansah, Elliott, Jones, Conor Bradley, Bobby Clark, James
McConnell, Jayden Danns, Lewis Koumas, Harvey Davies, Klopp essentially gave the entire
youth team a run in the FA Cup and watched them lift the trophy. Then, except for Jones, almost
all of them experienced the typical growing pains of a young player in the Premier League:
inconsistency in form, loads upon loads of major injuries that have significantly hindered or even
destroyed any progress they could’ve made. I don’t think it’s bad luck that every major academy
player gets seriously injured at our club. I just don’t think young players are built for this league.
It’s too intense, too physical for young and growing bodies. I don’t think their bodies are ever
properly built for an intense league season as a professional. Again, Bayern and PSG have
different circumstances. The style of play in those leagues isn’t quite as intense. Germany has
loads of pressing in the Bundesliga, but not quite as much physicality. Ligue 1 games are slower
and more technical, boring to the average eye and usually end with scores of 1-0 or 2-0. Younger
players have more of a platform to thrive in those leagues compared to the Premier League. Just
look at Florian Wirtz. An elite playmaker at Leverkusen who isn’t given the space to operate in
the Premier League. Everyone’s bigger, faster, and more than willing to scythe you down at any
given moment before whining to the ref that it was all ball. Unless you’re a behemoth of a young
man like Nico O’Reilly, or specially gifted like Phil Foden, the average young player from a
Premier League academy, or truly anywhere, just won’t have the physical nor mental capacities
to handle the game as it’s played in England.

In conclusion, I must admit I am always a major fan of promoting and using academy
players in the first team. It provides the fans with the opportunity to cheer on one of their own,
gives the academy player a chance to make it big for the club he loves. Remember the emotion
of Elliott’s first goal, or Gerrard’s. It means more to make it for the club you love. However, I
fear that the Premier League, in its quest to weaponize profits and continue to level up the game
both at home and on the continent, has all but forgotten academies. While Liverpool should look
for cost effective ways to keep up with the oil money, they cannot risk breaking any more careers
than they already have done. Unless there’s a truly sensational player, but even then, I still fear
Rio will go the way of so many others and never reach his potential because of serious injury. I
love seeing a proper big club like Bayern use this strategy. I think it’s the right move for most
clubs, as it’s both cost effective and creates pathways for young players to quickly be involved
with the best teams. Unfortunately, the Premier League is just a different beast. I’d investigate
training methods to see if alternative ways to train and prepare academy players are available. I’d
push for ways to try and make this strategy feasible in the future, for both Liverpool and other
Premier League clubs. Perhaps a team like Brentford can be a model of sorts. But that process
has to begin, then make progress. I don’t believe any club would put in that time and effort. In a
way, this is Part II of my series. Part III should be done sometime later this week. Until next
time.