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On a recent Infinity Football podcast, @rwohan had @OmarChaudhuri talk football and transfers in this COVID-19 environment. One thing Omar said that struck me - many teams underestimate the value of their own academies. Why Liverpool seem to focus so much on this academy. /thread
One of Klopp’s most important demands to FSG was not a new multimillion pound player, it was combining the senior and academy training setups in one center. The new training center will cost over £50m, and hopefully will welcome the players and staff this coming season. 2/
Trent is the shining star from the academy, but Jones and Williams will be in the squad next season, while Elliott, Hoever, van den Berg, Clarkson, and Cain are not far behind. I expect they will be fully involved in the first team training this coming season. 3/
Clearly the financial benefit of brining an academy player in your squad are huge. Trent is rated by @Transfermarkt the most valuable defender in the world, at €110m. I doubt LFC sell him for twice that. Curtis and Neco would require £20m to £30m to acquire from other teams. 4/
But developing academy players into the squad has other advantages. They love the club, bleed Liverpool Red and do not see the team as a stepping stone. They serve as examples of success and commitment to development when trying to attract other young players into the academy. 5/
And their homegrown status gives the team flexibility when looking to acquire talented players from abroad. LFC lost Lallana and Clyne. Being able to replace them with Jones and Williams as HG players meant they could maintain the HG quota when agreeing a deal for Tsimikas. 6/
Tsimikas effectively takes Lovren’s spot. But Liverpool are now back at the limit and will likely have to sell a foreign born player if they were to try to sign Thiago, for example. That’s one reason why keeping Wilson and selling Shaqiri might be under consideration, e.g. 7/
Longer term, Milner and Hendo will need to be replaced; if Clarkson and Cain are able to develop into squad players until then, that would be hugely beneficial to the club. It could mean not having to overspend on the likes of Cantwell (an example of recently rumored target). 8/
It’s unreasonable to expect that LFC will stop buying non-HG players; players like Tsimikas will always be needed to add depth to the squad, as needed. But if LFC can add a couple of academy kids to the squad every couple of years, it’ll give them a big long term advantage. 9/
Klopp said recently that he would love a team full of Scousers. That’s impossible, but it highlights the appreciation that Klopp has for the academy, and explains why he seems to committed to pushing academy players into the squad over signing expensive veterans as backups. /end
PS. Apologies to @rwohan - his podcast is Infinite Football, my iPhone has gone and autocorrected that wrongly. Also, I made a few spelling mistakes in some of the tweets, do not judge me too harshly. 
