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Liverpool Attempt To Poach Clayton

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Once our best mates in the game Liverpool are now central to the poaching row. After Dario’s comments over the weekend, where he revealed that one of the academy’s top youngsters had been the subject of an illegal approach from a Premier League giant, the tabloids took the row up a notch this morning.

It’ll come as no surprise to most Alex fans that the subject of that illegal approach was the highly rated 15 year old Max Clayton. Clayton was 18 months ago linked with a multi-million pound move to Anfield, a move then Alex manager Steve Holland rejected outright.

Dario claimed at the weekend that he has plenty of evidence to support his claims of the poaching attempt, which has left Clayton wanting to leave the club and as such has reported the club in question (Liverpool…?) to FIFA.

It will probably get a little bit more messy before all this goes away. Liverpool will no doubt try and buy their way out of the accusations, something that may not wash with Dario who’s seeing 26 years of hard work slowly slip through his fingers as the rich start robbing from the poor.

It’s sad that on various message boards and football sites there are comments from Premier League fans claiming it doesn’t matter, players should be with them for the good of their development and little Crewe would only sell them anyway. It’s such an ill-informed way of thinking – probably what you’d expect from 70% of armchair supporters.

If the ‘big 4 [cheats]’ are allowed to walk into our academy and take the cream of the crop without proper compensation or talks with the club then our club as a whole is likely to die.

Like it or not, the academy is our life blood and up to 12 months ago with the sale of Nicky Maynard for £2.5million it’s still keeping this club away from debt whilst providing us with some of the best youngsters the Football League has seen in recent years. And yes, it’s a shame Gudjon Thordarson doesn’t see it.

Without us reaping the awards from transfer fees after spending years coaching these young players then our academy would have to go, taking everything this club has worked for for the past 25 years.

It would effectively rip the heart out of the club, but with all the headlines this week it seems to be a every day thing for these big clubs.

I think it’s about time FIFA/UEFA/The FA came down hard on these cheats. Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea… all whinge about each others transfer activity but are all quite clearly as bad as each other. It’s time to protect the real heart of English football and that’s the clubs down in the lower leagues nurturing the future of English football.

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11 comments

  • Liverpool_lad says:

    I agree entirely with your thoughts but unfortunately, people will always try to get something for nothing. Possibly the only way to solve this issue is to make the interested club declare their interest in signing a youth player, to the relevant footballing governing body, at least 6 months before thay can actually buy him. That way the selling club can sort out a suitable compensation package for the loss of the youth. It should help prevent youth players from just jumping ship to the bigger clubs due to the big club not declaring the intent to sign him. If this process already exists then forget everything after the first sentence 🙂

  • mowen23 says:

    Just leave him here and pay 2million when he is knocking them in for our first team.

  • Klutch says:

    As a Liverpool fan I agree with everything written above, if we did attempt to poach any youngsters we should be fined. This needs to be stopped ASAP, I don’t think it?s fair that clubs could see their youngsters jump ship as soon as a “bigger” and club comes in for them.

  • zakazano says:

    it’s a global problem. Just look at the many young African players dumped in Belgium with Arsenal, Man U and others’ feeder clubs so they qualify fastest for an EU passport. When a kid has talent he needs to be able to move to a club who will take him to stardom, but you can’t just pinch them. A contract isn’t binding at that age and the parents will often be exposed to sums of money they can only dream of, so they’d sell their grandmother to take the offer. The six-month offer, registered via FIFA, as mention by Liverpool_lad sounds a step in the right direction. But it has to apply worldwide, not just in the UK or EU.

  • Liverpool_lad says:

    I think that will be the biggest stumbling block zak, gettting clubs outside those zones to comply. But, FIFA are supposedly the world governing body so I guess if anyone can organize it better, surely it is them?!

  • mowen23 says:

    And there lies the problem, FIFA couldn’t run a bath, never mind world football.

  • fattony says:

    Talk about hypocrisy.

    I’m a LFC fan and don’t agree with whats happened (if it has), but who has the right to say where a child goes??? Crewe, or any other club for that matter, should not be allowed to hold on to a kid if he wants to go elsewhere.

    Crewe would’ve picked up this child from some kids team somewhere and now want exclusive rights on his future….how is that OK??? Your whole argument is rubbish based on this, and that applies to ANY club anywhere, even my own.

    Until any footballer is old enough to sign an adult contract he should be free to play anywhere he likes and no club should be able to prevent this from happening. No child should be able to be purchased and no club should be able to sell a child or prevent them from playing with any club they want.

    This whole thing is a sham.

  • bizza says:

    Well put Dink. I presume that this affair puts a nail in the coffin of our long-standing “alliance” with Liverpool, announced on Valentines Day 1997?

  • zakazano says:

    yeah nice one fattony – there goes every club below the Premiership….

  • Dink. says:

    Premiership fan who has no grasp on the game – shock horror!

  • fattony says:

    Well done Dink and Zakazano….so its ok to peddle in kids, just as long as its non premiership teams then….very good, lets keep trading children so it makes it easier for non premiership sides!!!

    If these lads sign contracts at 16 or 18, then fair enough, before that age Crewe or anyone else should have no right and no entitlement to a CHILD.

    The premieship can’t get hold of every kid, 99% of the kids we bring through don’t make it and a lot of those that don’t end up in the lower leagues anyway.

    Its plain wrong dealing in children, nobody should be able to do it.

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