Andrew Stokes

Alex Inglethorpe, Liverpool’s Academy Director, is blunt about early ranking, it’s almost meaningless. What a player is at 9, 12 or 13 tells you almost nothing about what they can become. ➠ Trent Alexander-Arnold not number one in his group. ➠ Connor Bradley not number one in his group. ➠ Jarell Quansah not number one in his group at that time. And you could go through all of them. Every now and again you see the obvious one, Jude Bellingham at Birmingham and Rooney at Everton. Clear standouts who stayed standouts. They exist, but they’re the exception. ⇢ Harry Kane shows the reality. At Tottenham at 13 he was middle of the group at best. Not on the podium. Gold and silver medalist Harry Kane wasn’t anywhere near it according to Alex Inglethorpe when he was at Tottenham Academy then. Then Brad Friedel came in one day and said “he finishes like Robbie Fowler”. ➝ No backlift. ➝ Hits the ball hard. ➝ Finds corners. That single comment shifted the perspective. These players didn’t announce themselves as prodigies, they grew. They changed physically, mentally, technically, socially. Someone recognised the direction they were moving in, not the snapshot they were frozen in. That’s often (not always) core coaching failure at youth level, adults obsess over the podium instead of the trajectory. ⁃ The best at 12 is often the earliest developer. ⁃ The middle is often the one with the longer runway. ⁃ The worst is often the one carrying the biggest biological gap. Alex Inglethorpe’s message is brutal but accurate: 🔴 Stop judging children by where they sit in the pack. 🔴 Start judging them by what their behaviours, mindset and habits suggest they might become.