I’d swap silverware to find new Gerrard

Jun 29 2007 by Chris Wright, Liverpool Daily Post

TRADING both FA Youth Cup victories for just one player to follow in the footsteps of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, would be a fair swap, according to John Owens.

Success is what Liverpool strive for at all levels of the club, and the back-to-back wins in the prestigious youth event in the last two seasons are a source of great pride. But the new Academy manager continues to speak the familiar mantra of developing players ahead of winning matches and trophies at youth level.

The former Altrincham defender was named in a three-pronged management structure at the Academy’s Kirkby base earlier this week following the departure of the long-serving director Steve Heighway last month.

Owens has been assistant to Heighway for five years, having worked for the club in several part-time coaching roles in the last decade and a half, as well as being involved with Liverpool schoolboys, England schoolboys and the semi-professional team.

Now alongside Malcolm Elias, whose remit is recruitment, and ex-Ajax player Piet Hamberg – the technical manager – the 57-year-old Liverpudlian will look to build on and improve the club’s youth set-up.

If Liverpool wanted their new structure to mirror the hopes for the future of their youth development, they couldn’t have got it any better.

Bringing local, national and international talent together to give them the best chance of making it through the ranks to Rafael Benitez’s first-team squad is the ultimate aim. And with Liverpool-born Owens, former Southampton recruitment director Elias and Hamberg – who has extensive coaching experience worldwide and has recently been working in Switzerland – they would appear to have the ideal set-up.

But all three will be working to the same goal.

Owens, who will be back at his desk today following a holiday in Greece, said: “We like to mention the Youth Cup wins at times for obvious reasons. But we all agree that we would swap both of those wins for getting one player through to the first team, because that is exactly what the job is about. We don’t need reminding of it.

“We know the situation and how difficult it is to bring players through. Whether that be local youngsters, players from around the country or from abroad.

“We want to get somebody into the first team and doing well that isn’t going to cost a fantastic amount of money.”

Hamberg will arrive on Merseyside on July 8, before joining the Academy a day later. Owens, who gave up his teaching career to work full-time at Liverpool five years go, can’t wait to begin joining forces with the Dutchman. And he hopes all three can help take Liverpool’s Academy to a even more successful future.