Keane all at sea over youth programme

SUNDERLAND MANAGER:ROY KEANE loves walking his dogs by the North Sea, but when it comes to trawling for talented young footballers Sunderland's costal location is far from ideal.

With FA Premier League regulations dictating that boys must live within 90 minutes travel of any team they sign for, Sunderland's proximity to the sea restricts the number of youngsters eligible to join the Stadium of Light's youth programme.

It has left a frustrated Keane having to find other ways of luring promising players to the club's academy. Many managers are circumventing the 90-minute rule by simply buying the best teenagers produced by the academies of smaller or overseas clubs.

"A lot of the young kids at Arsenal and Chelsea that are praised haven't come through their academies, they've been bought from other clubs," said Sunderland's manager. "That's something we are looking at. If you look at our academy, we are restricted in terms of our location.

"You can only bring in kids from a certain area. It's a certain radius and a lot of our radius is in the water. We have to look at whether there's any good fish out there. Manchester City and Chelsea got a lot of credit for reaching the FA Youth Cup final last season but they actually bought quite a few of those players."

Sunderland were beaten by City in the Youth Cup semi-finals last spring. "Arsene Wenger is very switched on to it. If he gets a player in the first team and someone says, 'well, you bought him from Millwall for £50,000 (€63,000)', he'll say 'so what?'. And sometimes that £50,000 will keep a smaller club going. Buying in youth players is not all bad."

Keane is excited by Arsenal's youngsters. "The word on the football street is that they have a group of kids coming through who will be absolutely outstanding," he said.

Meanwhile, Rafael Benitez has requested "easier games" from Liverpool this season, having warned his players their unbeaten start will be in peril should they continue to rely on dramatic late rescue acts. Liverpool have come from behind to win four times this term. Manchester City saw a 2-0 interval lead dissolve into a 3-2 stoppage-time defeat, while Manchester United, Middlesbrough and Marseille have also lost to Benitez's team having taken the lead.

"If I had to decide between a game like City and a simple 2-0, I'd always choose 2-0. That would be better for my heart," the Liverpool manager said.

"It's very positive we are scoring a lot of goals in the second half but also dangerous. We need to start scoring in the first half and have some easier games."

Guardian Service