There’s nothing quite like the buzz of excitement when word begins to spread about a talented young goalscorer emerging through the youth ranks.
Fans with their ear to their ground were well aware of the chatter surrounding the likes of Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen and Raheem Sterling long before they made their Liverpool breakthroughs and started to develop their sparkling promise at the top level.
There are of course no guarantees that an ability to cut a swathe through academy defences will automatically translate into the cold hard currency of goals in senior football and history is littered with sad tales of ‘wonderkids’ who were tipped to be the next big thing but struggled under the weight of expectation before fizzling out into obscurity.
