Could Max Clayton become Liverpool’s Gaël Kakuta? This blog, with tongue only slightly in cheek, wondered whether the owners would be tempted to report their own club to FIFA as illicit talent poachers.
With the American duo at the helm and in charge of purse strings it helps to have the occasional laugh as unbridled joy often seems a far away place.
Rows are engulfing almost every club deemed able to turn a young head. Chelsea are preparing their appeal. Manchester United are subject to a complaint from Fiorentina while Le Havre make noises. Stade Rennes are said to have already filed a report with the game’s ultimate governing body.
Both the Football and Premier League boards state they have not been asked to cast an eye Anfield’s way but Crewe Alexandra a club Liverpool have a “special relationship” with are said to be unhappy about the Reds’ pursuit of their best young player.
Just how high the heat may be turned up is another matter. Clayton knows of Liverpool’s interest following a previous enquiry when Danny O’Donnell left for Gresty Road. Crewe refused to make a swap deal even if weighted by cash in their favour plus the player they sought and paid £100,000 to take O’Donnell.
Should Clayton’s talent be as real as it appears he would rise to the top of the game but increasingly the big clubs want to bring those with promise through their own junior ranks rather than trust others - even those with a pedigree like Dario Gradi.
The development and investment made in the teenager so far deserves compensation and the suspicion is that no club will be careless enough to fall foul of the same regulations Chelsea are held to be in breach of.
Crewe and many clubs will be able to ask for better deals rather than expect to have their gems whipped away with the maximum fuss but minimum reward.
Player recruitment at that age range has been a murky one across many continents - Europe included - for many years. French clubs have taken some of Africa’s best and seen them turn out for Les Bleus rather than nations of birth. Belgian counterparts have followed suit. Spain and Portugal have used Latin America as their pools.
Selling on for profit and the larger more successful clubs feeding those with minimal financial resource has been the way ever since the game went professional and even before has been a way of life. It's a system no one really wants to change needs better regulation and rules which not only rewards clubs for their efforts but protects young men who for all the protection and help they will get due to their prodigious ability are vulnerable.
There should be no expectation that a quiet word to an agent or parents will lure a youngster to any club even if the cheque will contain six noughts.
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