Hamberg to head new Liverpool FC Academy regime

Jun 28 2007 by Richard Williamson, Liverpool Daily Post

FORMER Ajax player Piet Hamberg has been chosen to spearhead the development of the next generation of young players at Liverpool.

Hamberg will leave his present post at Swiss club Grasshoppers to take up the new role as Academy Technical Manager next month.

His appointment follows the retirement of Steve Heighway after 18 years at the Academy and heralds a revamped line-up in Liverpool’s youth set-up.

Heighway’s role has been split in two. Hamberg’s brief is to concentrate on the coaching side of the Academy’s work while John Owens has been promoted to the role of Academy Manager from coach to the under-18s team, which has won the FA Youth Cup for the past two seasons.

They will both work alongside Malcolm Elias, who joined Liverpool from Southampton and is in charge of recruitment.

Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry believes the new structure will give the club the best chance of success.

“Steve Heighway’s departure gave us a chance to assess things and it was felt the role in charge of the Academy had become too big for one person so it made sense to separate the two sides of the role,” he explained.

“We wanted to bring someone in to concentrate solely on the technical side of things, on being out on the pitch coaching, while also having someone in charge of the managing of the Academy. Steve Heighway’s great strength was coaching and yet a lot of time in the role would be spent in the office.

“John Owens has been with us a long time and understands the Academy system and Liverpool while Piet will be able to concentrate on doing what he does best, which is coaching the young players.

“He may not be a household name to many fans but he has a good track record and reputation within the world of football.”

Hamberg, who played professionally in both the Dutch and Swiss leagues, was in charge of the youth set-up in Zurich while he has previously coached in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Parry believes that breadth of experience means he will bring new ideas to the club.

“Although he played at Ajax, he has developed his own ideas and won’t just be bringing the Ajax methods to Liverpool,” he said. “It is a very exciting time. We have always been committed to the Academy system and the success of the team in the FA Youth Cup in the past two seasons has given everyone a lift.

“But when Steve Heighway announced he was going it marked the end of one era but these appointments signal how serious we are about the future of the Academy.”

Parry insisted that the appointment of an overseas coach did not mean the club would be abandoning local players in favour of those from abroad.

“We remain absolutely focussed on the local youngsters and Piet was exactly the same in Zurich.

“People should not assume that because we have a foreign coach we will suddenly be bringing in a raft of Dutch or German players, for example.”

Piet has met with Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez and shared their ideas on youth development with Parry adding: “Their views are very similar and they are looking forward to working together. Benitez said: “We have had some very good reports about Piet and he will bring great experience to the new role.

“Our youngsters can only benefit from working with someone with his background in youth development.”