Benitez: We must invest in youth
The Anfield chief has reacted with his stark warning in the wake of seeing his side humiliated 6-3 in the Carling Cup quarter-finals by Wenger’s young brigade.
Nine of Wenger’s 16-man squad at Anfield were teenagers, and the average age of the outfield players was 20 years 11 months.
And they even had 16-year-old England Schools star Henri Lansbury on the bench, who would have become the club’s youngest player had be come on.
Benitez sees the reality of how Wenger’s academy and youth set-up has eclipsed Liverpool’s, echoing similar complaints from his predecessor Gerard Houllier, who fell out badly with the club’s academy set-up.
Benitez said: “We are also looking for young players, but Arsene Wenger has been working on this for 10 years, we have been doing it for just a couple.
“But we need to keep trying our best in the market and work quickly if you have the money. And if you have money then you must work at bringing in the best young players.”
He added: “I do not really like to talk now about who we want and who Arsenal have signed, that would be too easy.
“But they have two or three players that we were monitoring and we couldn’t sign because we didn’t have the money.
“But we have to keep going, to do the same thing as Arsene. But if you want top-class players you must spend money, not only at senior level but at youth level too.
“We know the players, we know the names. We knew about some of these players that Arsenal have signed, we had reports on them. But if you cannot pay 6 million for Diaby or Denilson, you cannot buy them.”
Benitez complained at the weekend after Arsenal’s seniors beat his team 3-1 in the FA Cup third round that he could not compete financially to buy top match-winning stars.
With the prospect of new owners at Anfield, Benitez added: “We cannot pay such money for players like that. It is the same with top players too, but it can be more difficult at youth level because some clubs spend big money in this market.
“We are working in the right way, I am happy with the scouting department, and we are doing a lot of good things.
“The conclusion that worries me is that Arsenal could pick nine reserves and score six goals at Anfield. We had seven of the first team and could not win. There is a lesson in this for the whole of our club: if you want to compete at top level you must spend a lot of money and not just on your first team, but on young players and reserves.
“My scouts are excellent, but sometimes we go too slow as a club to make signings we need, and when we do there is not a lot of money.
“We are signing a young keeper on loan, with an option for later, and we have also been working for many weeks to sign the young Scottish player, Jamie McCarthy.
“These are deals we are doing because we want to build a strong squad of similar quality for the future, but, without spending big money, it is difficult.”
Liverpool moved yesterday to take Italian U21 keeper Daniele Padelli on loan and signed Emiliano Insua from Boca Juniors recently.
The Merseysiders have been trailing 16-year-old Hamilton youngster McCarthy, who is also on trial at Reading this week.
Next on the list of arrivals is expected to be Argentinian winger Sebastian Leto for £1.85 million from Lanus in the summer.
In Benitez’s time at Anfield, he has tried to build up an elite youth squad who train with the seniors at Melwood and not at the Kirby-based academy.
Jack Hobbs, Paul Anderson, David Martin, Miquel Roque, Godwin Antwi, Besian Idrizaj and Nabil El Zhar have all been signed and by-passed the academy, much like the vast majority of Arsenal’s youngsters in their Carling Cup squad.
Only Justin Hoyte is an academy product.
But none of Benitez’s young players have yet proved good enough to go straight into the first team squad, while Wenger clearly has better quality at his disposal.
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