Liverpool can still attract big-name players without Champions League football, says Andy Carroll

Liverpool can still attract big-name players without Champions League football, says Andy Carroll

Liverpool’s owners vision for the future of the club has earned the unequivocal backing of their record signing, with Andy Carroll confident big-name players can still be lured.

Jumping for joy: Andy Carroll celebrates his first goal for Liverpool against Manchester City Photo: ACTION IMAGES

By Rory Smith 10:52PM BST 12 Apr 2011

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The club’s most recent debutant, John Flanagan, is also a keen advocate, insisting that more starlets are ready to follow his path from academy to first team.

John Henry and Tom Werner, the principal backers of the Fenway Sports Group consortium which bought the club for £300million in October, have consistently stated their intention to overhaul Kenny Dalglish’s squad in favour of a more streamlined, economically viable model balanced between big-money, high-profile stars and home-grown talent.

Liverpool supporters were offered a glimpse of that future on Monday night, as Carroll — ably supported by Luis Suarez — scored his first two goals since his £35million transfer to help Dalglish’s side to a 3-0 win against Manchester City and Flanagan, an 18-year-old right-back fresh from the club’s youth system, made an accomplished debut in defence.

Though Flanagan was involved on Monday night only because of injuries to Glen Johnson and Martin Kelly — another academy graduate who has come to prominence this season — his presence in Dalglish’s side highlighted that, more than a decade after the emergence of Steven Gerrard and Stephen Warnock, Liverpool’s Kirkby production line is cranking back into action.

Another youngster, Jack Robinson, spent Monday night on the bench, while the likes of Conor Coady and Raheem Sterling have both been called into senior squads in recent weeks. The credit for that, Flanagan believes, must be given to Dalglish. The Scot’s work at the academy before replacing Roy Hodgson means he has the faith required to hand young players a chance where others have not dared.

“Kenny has been a big help to me and the other young players,” said Flanagan, whose father, also John, used to clean the Scot’s boots as a YTS trainee at Anfield. “He has been working at the club for the last two years so he knows the youngsters well. It helps us just the fact that we already know him, because it means he knows us well too.

“It gives all of the young players a boost because we know that Kenny is looking at us and is willing to give us our chance, so that gives us confidence. The thing for us is that when we do get a chance we have to take it.”

Several of Flanagan’s peers from the club’s youth system are expected to be promoted to the first-team squad in the summer to replace the likes of Milan Jovanovic, Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Christian Poulsen, high-earning fringe players FSG is determined to jettison.

Under the Americans’ model, money saved on their salaries will be put towards wages for high-calibre first-team players — Sylvain Marveaux, of Rennes, and Newcastle’s Jose Enrique are expected to be just two among several signings this summer — and Carroll is confident the club, despite their continued absence from the Champions League, will have no trouble attracting major stars.

“There are massive names here,” said the striker. “It is a massive club. I do not see why we cannot attract big names. We are just putting a team together now. Me and Luis are new, [Flanagan] played his first game at the back and I thought he did great. It shows what we can do for next season.”

Dirk Kuyt, too, will be part of that future, with the former Feyenoord striker due to sign this week a contract that will keep him at Anfield until 2014. The Dutchman’s goal against City was his ninth in 10 games and his seventh since Dalglish took charge at Anfield.
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