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Heighway digs at Rafa


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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle1744555.ece

 

Alyson spent Tues with Stevie Heighway at the acadamy....looks like he is becoming a tad bitter

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle1744555.ece

 

Only days after Rafael BenÍtez led his team to a memorable Champions League semi-final victory over Chelsea at Anfield, Steve Heighway, the legendary Liverpool winger and head of the club?s highly successful academy, has attacked the Liverpool manager for his interference in the development of the club?s best young players.

 

Heighway labelled as ?crazy? BenÍtez?s decision to bypass him and take control of some of the players who won the FA Youth Cup last week for a second successive season. After the dramatic final at Old Trafford, Heighway announced that he was leaving the academy after 19 years in which he groomed the talents of a host of players, including Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen.

 

There had been rumours that BenÍtez did not want Heighway to exert his traditional control over young stars, but Heighway waited until the cup final was over before making his decision to leave official.

 

The rot, for Heighway, set in when the club decided to appoint from outside the club and break with its famous boot-room tradition. Heighway fell out with Gérard Houllier, BenÍtez?s predecessor, but stood his ground with backing from the Liverpool board. Now, though, he has decided that it is best to step down, rather than fight his corner ? especially because BenÍtez is proving a popular first-team coach.

 

Heighway said: ?Rafa is a terrific manager, tactically astute with qualities I really admire, [but] in my view I?m the best coach of 17 and 18-year-old players in this club. But I no longer get the chance to do that. That?s crazy, that?s mad; it?s to the detriment of the young players at this club.?

 

According to Heighway, BenÍtez?s staff do not even spot who are the best players. Heighway argues that he has produced a crop of young players that could take on and beat any other youth team in the world but that BenÍtez is in danger of undermining their potential.

 

The Spaniard wants some of the players to leave the academy and join Liverpool?s reserve team, but Heighway argues that the reserve team at any club are a waste of time and talent and that his best players should either stay with him at the academy or go straight into the first team ? as Michael Owen famously did.

 

The former winger, signed by Bill Shankly from nonLeague football, has urged the football community to engage in a serious debate about the damage being done to young players because of what he regards as outdated reserve-team football.

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Guest Scot

Hope he doesn't go bad over this. Unfortunately for him, the real lack of talent coming through of late undermines him.

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I don't think his comments were necessary to be honest. He was a great player for us, has done really well as a youth coach, but i don't think he needed to let the whole world know that he was not getting along with Rafa.

 

It has to make you question however how flexible he was when 2 managers in a row have now had problems with him, maybe he needs to think about that.

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They have changed the times article to this now, which is much more detailed.

 

Amended Times article

 

Steve Heighway, the legendary former Liverpool winger and head of the club?s highly successful academy, has labelled as ?crazy? the decision of Rafael BenÍtez to take control of the best young players at the club. Heighway is leaving the academy after 19 years, during which he groomed the talents of a host of players, including Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen.

 

?Rafa is a terrific manager, tactically astute with qualities I really admire,? Heighway said. ?In my view, I?m the best coach of 17 and 18-year-old players in this club. But I no longer get the chance to do that. That?s crazy, that?s mad; it?s to the detriment of the young players at this club. If they are not working with the best coach of young players, then what is this football club doing? It?s not an ego thing, but one thing I am absolutely sure about is that the best thing for the players is to be with me.

 

?My influence is being taken away too soon over the best players and I?m not convinced that what they are going to do is better for them. Last summer Rafa called me when I was in America and told me he wanted five players to go to the reserve-team squad, but he never asked me my view. He just told me, ?These are the five I want.? So my whole role has been totally undermined.

 

?Maybe because I have a brain and a mind, maybe that counts against you. I have never been asked by the manager which players I think are the best players. His staff watches the players and his staff make the decisions.?

 

Heighway said that he has ?tremendous respect? for BenÍtez ? but only as the manager of the first team. He had less time for Gérard Houllier, BenÍtez?s predecessor. ?With Houllier I just got blanked once I stood up to him in a couple of very high-profile moments,? Heighway said. ?So I became persona non grata.

 

?Managers are control freaks; they are not used to people disagreeing with them, standing up to them in general. It became very obvious that was it; once I had disagreed with him I wasn?t going to get anywhere with him.?

 

But, unlike now, Heighway stood his ground and did not leave. ?Houllier, in a very public meeting, stood up and demanded control of the academy and was told he couldn?t have it,? he said. ?I got tremendous support from Rick Parry [the Liverpool chief executive], so I just got on with the work. And of course Steven Gerrard broke through from the academy five minutes later.

 

?Houllier ludicrously claimed that he discovered him wallowing in the academy, which was a very foolish thing to do because he lost credibility with a lot of people who knew differently. Stevie had been groomed for the top here and everybody knew it. I?d been telling them since Steven was 14 that potentially we had a world star.?

 

Heighway?s academy team won the FA Youth Cup last month, beating Manchester United on penalties in the final, and he has taken many of those players on tour to the United States this week. ?There?s nothing going on here for them,? Heighway said. ?The reserve team?s season is finished, but he [benÍtez] won?t let some of them go.?

 

Heighway said that he is leaving the club the legacy of a group of players who could have the impact of the best Anfield has seen.

 

?Kenny [Dalglish] was the greatest player I ever played with,? he said. ?You felt you could win any game because of him. And I feel that now with these boys who have just won the Youth Cup. I would take these boys anywhere and put them up against any team of 18-year-olds in the world, even a squad of international players, and I would be disappointed if they didn?t come out on top.?

 

Heighway was ready to resign last summer, but stayed so as not to create instability while Parry, his great ally, was in takeover talks. ?It?s not easy to walk away from something,? Heighway said. ?It?s common knowledge I would want to do things differently. Above all I?m a coach and I?m told I?m good at it. I no longer coach the best 18-year-olds in this club and I?ve done that for 19 years. Rafa has taken that away from me now.

 

?There?s no bitterness. First-team mangers should have it the way they want it. All the club has to decide is how far they are able to extend their influence. Obviously they are not going to control the ticket office. And my view is the academy is an area the club have to be careful about in letting the first-team manager?s influence spread too far.

 

?I would urge any football club to make sure the academy is not one of the areas the manager controls. I just think it is ludicrous; it doesn?t make any sense whatsoever.

 

?My attitude is very simple. If I don?t share the same views as the manager, then I need to go, not him. It?s obvious we don?t agree. We haven?t fallen out. I?m not expecting Rick Parry to sack Rafa because I disagree with things he wants to do and it is important to stress that I don?t have that kind of ego.?

 

Heighway has met George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks, the club?s new American owners, and has indicated that he would accept a new part-time role helping Liverpool to identify young talent overseas.

 

?I spent 18 or 19 years being a policy-maker and decision-maker and I?m not going to suddenly start cleaning the floors or scouting the odd game,? Heighway said. But any new role would have to be part-time, so that he can spend time with his children and grandchil-dren and travel. He still has a home in Clearwater, Florida.

 

?The club have a lot of projects in America which will need servicing and I?m quite fortunate in a sense that I have a unique set of qualifications, having played, having got a degree, having coached here for 19 years and in America for eight years,? he said. ?So I can go into a club in America and give talks or seminars or whatever. They [Hicks and Gillett] were certainly very complimentary about the work we have done here. I?m waiting for them to come back to me.?

 

Heighway won four league titles, two European Cups, two Uefa Cups and the FA Cup during his 11 years at Liverpool from 1970 to 1981 and believes that success was built on what he terms the Liverpool way.

 

?I?m very principled,? he said. ?I have a view on what it is to play for Liverpool, what it is to work for Liverpool, what are the values, what are the standards, and I find that others still share them with me but it is less and less.?

 

Those values are about ?conducting yourself with class, winning with class, losing with class, not winning at any cost. I think you would hear Rick Parry saying that.

 

?And also I believe in a way of playing. We have always believed in pass and move at Liverpool. Maybe that?s something that only I believe in now. That?s hit home to me quite hard ? maybe the values I share are things from the past.

 

?There are going to be changes and I would rather not have to make the decision on whether I want to be part of them. Those changes won?t necessarily be for the worse; everyone has their shelf life. I?ve been here 19 years ? that?s a long, long time.?

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If he thinks any of the current youth team should be in our first team hes deluded, when he said Spearing could play in the PL now you have to wonder if he really understands whats required to make it at the top level.

 

No doubt hes produced some very good youth teams with the emphasis on team, but for Rafa its much more important to be producing players good enough for the first team, winning youth cups is great but finding players for the first team is ultimately the #1 priority of the academy.

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He makes fair enough points I suppose.

 

Point is though, if he still wanted to be part of the club even in a part-time capacity, he shouldn't have made them. I'd be surprised if Hicks and Gillett offer him a position now.

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Guest ukbriand
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle1744555.ece

 

Alyson spent Tues with Stevie Heighway at the acadamy....looks like he is becoming a tad bitter

 

[The former winger, signed by Bill Shankly from nonLeague football, has urged the football community to engage in a serious debate about the damage being done to young players because of what he regards as outdated reserve-team football.

 

 

I think Steve has a good point, but so too does Rafa. Reserve team football is no longer the midway step from youth to first team. We used to have a first team from a pool of maybe 13 players for the whole season, 1 sub allowed.

 

Now, any top team has a matchday squad of 16 from maybe 22 - 25 players in the squad. There is no midpoint. Rafa saw this at RM and Steve has seen this develop over 3 decades at the club. Strangely I think they are both right but I wish a club dispute was not being published in the Times.

 

There has been much talk about Premiership and La Liga clubs having interests in "feeder clubs" and MU, and ourselves have close contacts with many clubs on a friendly basis, but this is often derided by local fans as committing them to being junior clubs (sad but true). Steve H and our new owners pave the way for us to develop this principle within the USA where the quality is not yet as good but the game is expanding rapidly (largest participant sport within the US) I hope that Stevie Heighway (on the wing) is encouraged to develop our interests in the US as a scout and coach, also bringing some of his protoges to play within the the MLS for experience.

 

This will also broaden our appeal to an expanding Footie (soccer) market.

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The problem I always felt was that Heighway didn't quite see the Academy as a day to day part of the club as a whole, fully participating in and fully dependent on its main task - developing quality youth players for the senior squad in a modern footballing scenario. It's not a seperate entity linked to the club by grace and favour or anything else - it has that basic job to do, and to be honest since Gerrard came through pickings have been very slim - Mellor and Warnock both made contributions of a limited scope but that's it.

 

The Academy director for me is NOT the best judge of who is ready to go from there into the first team - who makes that move or the move to the squad is Rafa and his staff's say so - and quite right to.

 

It's a great thing to have opinions, traditions and solid convictions Steve, but it's arrogant to assume yours are always right or even always pertinent in a rapidly changing footballing world.

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at least it hasn't gone to his head.

 

He is the youth coach and that has to be respected.. I think maybe this is a situation that has been created from nothing or little. Maybe this is part of the argument that reserve teams should be allowed to play competetive football in a lower division. Tiwsted out of proportion it does look nasty, maybe im wrong. either way, i wouldnt read so much into it.

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Guest Anders Honoré

AFAIK, Gerrard didn't even join the academy until he was 15-16. So I think some things are being overstated.

 

He may have some points though and I hope Rafa will at least take time to look over his comments thoroughly. Having won two youth FA cups on the bounce I think he has earned the right bo have some weight to his words.

 

AFAIK, Gerrard didn't even join the academy until he was 15-16. So I think some things are being overstated.

 

He may have some points though and I hope Rafa will at least take time to look over his comments thoroughly. Having won two youth FA cups on the bounce I think he has earned the right bo have some weight to his words.

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AFAIK, Gerrard didn't even join the academy until he was 15-16. So I think some things are being overstated.

 

He may have some points though and I hope Rafa will at least take time to look over his comments thoroughly. Having won two youth FA cups on the bounce I think he has earned the right bo have some weight to his words.

 

AFAIK, Gerrard didn't even join the academy until he was 15-16. So I think some things are being overstated.

 

He may have some points though and I hope Rafa will at least take time to look over his comments thoroughly. Having won two youth FA cups on the bounce I think he has earned the right bo have some weight to his words.

Stevie joined the academy when he has 9

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Guest onejimmymelia

I feel for heighwway cos with back to back fa youth cups he has done brilliantly, but it looks now as though rafa has got plans for the youth system and i'm more than happy to go with him.

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He's missing a huge point, the gap between youth and first team is bigger than he thinks, and I'm not sure I'm wrong in reading into his comments that he thinks the issue is the type of football the first team play.

 

One thing is clear though, the academy not working for the first team right now, the mini-academy has still to prove itself also, and there need to be people in the key positions who are pulling in the same direction, the idea that the academy should exiist in isolation is crazy.

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Heighway is just getting his digs in first. He must realise that he's not done a good enough job there in the last few years, and that it wasn't a coincidence that 2 managers have been unhappy with the way he ran things.

He's lucky he was there so long.

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It would add weight to his argument if we actually had any players come through.

 

If we're completely honest, who do we have who is good enough to step right into our first team apart from Insua and where is our next Carra or Stevie?

 

I know we are minted now, but what happens when Stevie and Carra retire? Will we go down the Arsenal route (who arguably can't handle the physical side) of not fielding one English player?

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Heighway fumes at 'crazy' Benitez

Steve Heighway with the 2007 FA Youth Cup

Heighway with the latest crop of Liverpool academy graduates

Former Liverpool academy coach Steve Heighway says manager Rafael Benitez's decision to assume control of the club's youth policy is "crazy".

 

Heighway left his job last week after 18 years in charge, following their FA Youth Cup win over Manchester United.

 

He told The Times: "Rafa is a terrific manager, but I think I'm the best coach of 17 and 18-year-old's in this club.

 

"But I no longer get the chance to do that. It's crazy, mad and it's to the detriment of the young players here."

 

Heighway, who oversaw the development of Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard, added: "If they are not working with the best coach of young players, then what is this football club doing?

 

"It's not an ego thing, but one thing I am absolutely sure about is that the best thing for the players is to be with me.

 

"My influence is being taken away too soon over the best players and I'm not convinced that what they are going to do is better for them.

 

"I would urge any football club to make sure the academy is not one of the areas the manager controls."

 

source

 

At the end if the day the academy is there to produce quality players for the first team, its not an altruistic exercise ( not even in Liverpool)

 

Given Rafa's experience with youth players ( Real Madrid etc) I expect Rafa would be a good exception to the general principle of keeping youth developement out of the hands of the current manager

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