Liverpool academy chief Frank McParland says the priority remains to bring local talent through.

He wrote in liverpoolfc.com: "Today, we sign nine-year-old players. But we're looking at them when they are five or six. There's such a massive difference.

"Football now is a global business and that starts at academy level. We've got probably over 60 staff in our Academy, full and part time. We've got scouts who go out and search for talent. We've even got five analysts, just for the Academy, looking at the way the kids play and develop.

"From the age of nine up, the kids come in of a night and do their own video clippings. We teach them how to produce clips of their performances, so that they can look at the way they have played and figure out where they have to learn.

"I still feel our biggest job here at Liverpool's academy is to find Liverpool players. If we can get local, Scouse kids into the first team then that will be our aim."