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Liverpool’s new director of football strategy, Damien Comolli, has set his sights on unearthing the best young talent in Britain.
Comolli was appointed in the role following New England Sports Ventures’ purchase of the club, and he has already decided the club must find a new generation of home-grown talent to follow the footsteps of current first-team stars Jamie Carragher and captain Steven Gerrard.
The former Arsenal scout and Tottenham director of football told Liverpool’s official website: “We really want to concentrate on getting English or British kids. I think that’s very important if we want to keep an identity to get those kids into the football club.
“Usually the big European clubs don’t come into England to get players so there will be massive competition in England with all the other big clubs, and then if we need to go abroad or decide to bring in a young kid from a foreign country because we think he’s a top talent then there will be competition with other clubs.
“There are two things. You need to spot them, identify them, make sure they’ve got the right attitude, the right mentality, the right spirit that you want them around on a day-to-day basis.
“The second thing is convincing them to come. That requires a lot of time, it requires a skill set from the scouts, or from myself.”
And Comolli believes club legend Kenny Dalglish, who has a role in the Reds’ Academy, is key to his plans.
He added: “I’m sure Kenny can have a massive impact if he meets the kid or his parents.
“That’s almost the most difficult part. Spotting a fantastic player is not that difficult, convincing them to come to us, that comes back to competition and that can be more difficult. We will have to be very, very good at it.”