19 Nov 2013

You're Out: LFC to dump striker Fowler called the 'best for a long time'. Mistake...?

Another one bites the dust! After ten years at the club, it appears that Liverpool youth striker Adam Morgan is set to become the latest young player to end up on the Anfield scrapheap.

According to the Daily Mail today:

"Liverpool have told Adam Morgan he can leave on a free transfer. Liverpool are prepared to let him go as other young forwards progress".

This should come as no real surprise. It's massively difficult for youth-team strikers to come through the ranks and establish themselves in the first team.

Indeed, in the last 20 years, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen are the only academy players to make it through, and forge successful careers with Liverpool. Neil Mellor had a brief spell of success, but like so many others, he also ended up on the scrapheap.

Many thought Morgan would make it, including Liverpool legends Gary Gillespie and Robbie Fowler, who both lavished praise on the 19-year old. A few months ago, Gillespie told LFC.com:

"I've likened him [Morgan] to John Aldridge more than anyone else I've seen. When balls come into the box he seems to be there. He's predatory, and that's what you've got to be as a striker. He's always in and around the area where it matters, and that's the 18 yard box to score goals. As a striker, that's a great trait to have, and he looks as if he's got it".

According to Gillespie, Morgan is not just a goal-poacher though; he has other qualities to his game:

"There's other things to his game too; he's got two good feet; his workrate is pretty good; he'll run the channels for you and close people down".

In a recent interview, Fowler hailed Morgan as a 'fantastic' goalscorer, and compared his composure in front of goal to that of Ian Rush. He told Fox Sports:

“He [Morgan] never looks ruffled and that to me is a great sign regardless of what level you are playing at. As a finisher he is probably one of the best I’ve seen for a long, long time to be honest.”

Well, it appears that 'fantastic' goalscoring ability and being one of the 'best' young strikers in a 'long time' is not enough to make it these days.

After Nathan Ecclestone and Michal Ngoo, Morgan is the third young LFC striker to leave over the last year, which is rather concerning, and doesn't really say much for the club's ability to develop strikers. Samed Yesil is also stuck in development hell, and will probably be the next young striker to be let go.

Additionally, why let Morgan leave on a free transfer? The club has invested ten years into training and developing the player, and now he leaves for nothing? How does that make any sense? Even a nominal fee would worth it, surely? Part of a top football club's business strategy is developing young players and selling them for a profit, so who does that fit with letting Morgan leave for free?

Surely, 10 years of schooling/development at one of the world's top clubs has to count for something...?

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17 comments:

  1. I am sure they would take the fee if someone was willing to buy him.
    This just means they want him off the wage bill, probably to accommodate other youngsters that we have signed and need more game time like that Canos kid from Barca and Sinclair.
    Morgan had his chances in last year's Europa league and it's probably the best for him if he leaves rather early and develop elsewhere rather than going out on loan and making up the numbers for pre season like Pacheco did all these years.

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  2. I do feel for Morgan, he has a great left foot and a poachers instinct, but maybe just not that something extra special needed to cut it at the top level. After getting some games last season he got re-trained as a wide player and also had a very unsuccessful loan spell, it just didn't work out. Came back and his confidence was shot to pieces. I can fully understand him being moved on to let the next batch of youngsters through but we really need to command a fee. Blackburn are reportedly interested so it isn't like he is going to drop so far down that clubs wouldn't be able to pay us. If we are going to make the academy work for us, we need to recoup fee's for homegrown players like Man Utd have been doing for years. Or we can take the Barca-esque route and put in buy back clauses if they do come good.


    Disagree with the thoughts on Yesil however, let the kid get back from injury (it was a nasty one) before writing him off..

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  3. Morgan was a hard working player who could score goals( finish) he does not have pace or great technical ability. He would do well in the lower league with hard working players around him who would supply him to just finish. If not then I doubt he would do that great. I wish him the best . We are getting more technically gifted players or players with pace who we could develop into better players. I think some of the younger strikers will get a run in the under 21s . I could see ngoo leaving and maybe a few more. Which is good coz we need to clear the wage bill and pay the better youngsters who are on the books.

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  4. I think you're wrong about Yesil. He's just coming back from a season ending injury. Before he was injured he was playing cup games and training regularly with the first team.
    As for Morgan, we don't have the full story around his supposed departure so let's not jump to conclusions. We could be cutting him loose, but also the player could be asking to leave to try to develop his career and the club may not be standing in his way. We aren't in there to hear the conversations that take place behind closed doors so let's not speculate too much.
    Personally I like the way our youngsters are developing. Get them in and around the first team, then after they are more comforatable and less "star struck" let's get them in some cup games. Hopefully we make champs league next season and then there will be more games to go around for people. Let's not forget our number 1 goal right now should be getting back into europe.

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  5. Its a shame to see young Adam go, always thought he had a special quality to him that he just knew how to finish. very good finisher similar to Rooney. but I do think Jerome Sinclair is much better than him. hes just 17 and already playing like Ronaldo, which is how the academy wants the forwards to play. when we introduce Sinclair properly to the 1st team when hes about 19 in the 2015/16, provided he develops well, he will be too good. Him, Sterling, Ibe and Hughes will beour English stars to take us forward for the future.
    Hope you do well Adam. Like the way BR has changed the academy, with much more exciting prospects coming into the team like Canos

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  6. Premier League clubs let dozens of youngsters go every year. Most of those will never get professional contracts anywhere. It's the nature of the beast. There are 340 places every week up for grabs in Premier League match day squads; there are at least three times that many players on the books over all. It's a buyer's market for young talent. We've done what we can for Adam; it's over to him now.



    Adam scored a wonderful long-range lob for the U21s this season which I'll always remember him for. Best of luck to him making his way in the game; but it's hard to imagine him doing the things a Liverpool striker needs to be able to do -- scoring a winner up against Varane and Ramos at the Bernabeu in a Champion's League Quarter Final, say, or scoring 35 goals to win us the league -- anytime soon. He just doesn't have that kind of quality.

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  7. yesil is so class, he´s got everything and playing in an ambitious german U-Team! i used to watch him play before his injury and he could be one of the top top top strikers in the future :)

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  8. Another positive article!! Unfortunately Morgan isnt good enough to make it at Liverpool so letting him go so someone else can get a chance is what football is all about at that level. How many promising youngsters do you think didnt make it before we found our Fowler or Owen. Doesnt mean there is anything wrong with the clubs youth developement

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  9. Marc Pelosi and Cameron Brannaga have just signed long term deals with LFC so if the story about Morgan is true then it just goes to show that not every youngster will be able to make a name for themselves.


    Maybe Morgan just isn't that good...

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  10. I'm a little disappointed because we read so much about these young players. To me at least it seemed Morgan was one of the better players in the youth setup...He's only 19 and Scouse too.


    Probably best to just leave if he isn't good enough. I agree with Shamsher, there's no point of sticking around like Pacheco and only appearing in pre season. Who's to say Morgan can't establish himself like Holt or Lambert in the future.

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  11. You're right, but it's well worth pointing out that Brannagan was on a youth deal and he was handed a pro deal. Morgan is on a pro deal and his contract actually expires at the end of next season. So Morgan isn't someone who failed to turn pro, he just hasn't established himself and is now (possibly) on the way out. Pelosi and Brannagan could end up in the same boat, but I hope not.

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  12. Yes but there is no point in keeping Morgan on the books if the club does not see him as part of the future. It will be detrimental to the club, the player himself and other players who show more promise than Morgan.


    That is the way the cookie crumbles.

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  13. Jamie the reason he has failed at us is that he is one of the biggest bell ends i have ever met i have only met him 3 or 4 times when he has came into my work with Robinson and someone else and they all thought they where gods gift to liverpool there not the type of people we should want playing for our club just another fart in the wind to go with the long list of kids that just are not good enough because of the mental attitude

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  14. If only two strikers come through the youth ranks and establish themselves in the first team in a a 20 year period, there's a problem (IMO). Are we to believe that in that time period, the club never found more than two players capable of making it?!

    If that's true, then there's either a problem with the scouting/recruitment, or an issue with the quality of coaching/bringing these players through.

    Prior to the 1990s, LFC didn't really have any kind of youth set-up; just the reserves, and most players were bought from outside and went into the reserves.

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