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You're railing against modern football here, I don't believe Liverpool are anywhere close to the worst for this (Chelsea and City seem to be the names most often cited in this regard) and I don't know why Klopp can't praise the academy, even if they've only been involved with some players for two years, a lot of development will have happened in this time. Morton and Waltman been there since 7 years old, Dixon Bonner and Kelleher for 6 years each, Trent since he was 6, Neco Williams and Curtis Jones since they were 8. Plus the recent academy graduates that we've sold for decent money (Kent, Wilson, Brewster - came from Chelsea academy aged 14, sold for £20m) - seems lots to thank them for.
owl
He was probably generalising but "All credit to our academy" isn't true at all. There should be credit to the other academies that have produced players to a certain level only for them to be sniped at the latest possible chance to get a good deal.
I can't say I'm fully up to speed with Liverpool's academy, but I'm pretty sure that Gordon isn't the only one they've signed as a 16/17 year old recently. Conor Bradley was signed 2 years ago as a 16 year old and played this weekend too, and Harvey Elliott (although I don't think he played at the weekend) was picked up from Fulham for a nominal fee as well.
They aren't the only club that do this. I know Derby sign some promising youngsters when they can too. We have invested a lot of money in trying to compete at academy level with the big clubs and have started to get some good results from it, it just massively backfires when the crown jewels are effectively stolen before the club can get any value from their investment.
What really boils my piss is Klopp's smugness. He used to be (kind of) likeable.