Paul Gorst takes a look at two centre-backs who are set to join Liverpool and assesses why academy success isn't always measured by first-team minutes
05:00, 15 Jan 2026Updated 22:32, 15 Jan 2026
While very few Liverpool supporters were concerning themselves with November's Under-17s World Cup in Qatar, those tasked with recruitment at Anfield were taking a keen interest.
After watching runners-up Austria beaten 1-0 by Portugal at the Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Liverpool swooped to conclude a deal with Austria Wien for defender Ifeanyi Ndukwe. The 17-year-old will join the Reds this summer and is set to initially be stationed in Rob Page's Under-21s squad.
Anfield insiders believe the giant Ndukwe has the potential to eventually be drafted into the first-team ranks and while he has yet to make his senior debut for the Austrian Bundesliga side, he has featured close to 10 times in their match-day squads this season, despite not turning 18 until March.
Ndukwe was captain at academy level and signed a three-year deal with his hometown club in June of last year. It's understood Liverpool fended off interest from Serie A giants Inter to land the centre-back in a deal that will be worth around £2.5m.
Elsewhere at the Qatar competition, Liverpool sealed a £1m deal with Senegal club Amitie, which is owned by former Newcastle and Chelsea striker Demba Ba, for Mor Talla Ndiaye, who was able to make the switch this month after his 18th birthday last week.
Ndiaye, who was at the 4-1 win over Barnsley in the FA Cup on Monday night, is a left-sided centre-half and will go straight into the U21 ranks. He played in all four of Senegal's games in the Middle East and his arrival will lead to loan opportunities for others in the current system with Amara Nallo, in particular, expected to be the subject of interest this month. This, in turn, adds value and experience to those on the move.
Both transfers were conducted by the long-serving Matt Newberry, whose job title at Liverpool now sees him operate as the club's 'director of global talent'. The promotion saw Newberry, who has previously served in various roles including director of loan and pathways and head of academy recruitment, start in November of 2024.
Liverpool also pledged to create two new roles at the time, with the club looking to recruit a loan and pathways lead and a performance analyst of those out on the short-term deals. The idea was to keep closer tabs on the development and progress of those out on loan.
As the United Kingdom prepared to leave the European Union at the end of 2020, a change to how academy transfers were able to be conducted, post-Brexit, forced clubs to alter their approach somewhat.
Suddenly unable to poach the brightest young talents on the continent until after their 18th birthdays - by which point their ability would be more widely known, goes the theory - Liverpool's parameters were refined and a focus on bringing in the best teenagers from the UK took on more prominence.
That led to Liverpool signing the likes of Kaide Gordon, Ben Doak and Trent Kone-Doherty. More recently, the likes of Nallo (West Ham United), Trey Nyoni (Leicester City) and Rio Ngumoha (Chelsea) have all been signed and have gained first-team exposure.
Gordon was on the fringes of the Derby County first team when the Reds made their move in early 2021, while Doak was knocking on the door of the Celtic seniors before his move south in 2022.
Scotland international Doak, who moved for around £300,000, was sold to Bournemouth last summer in a deal worth £25m, meaning each first-team appearance was worth £2.5m to his eventual value. It might seem like a cold and soulless way to view things for fans but those tasked with running a football club worth billions are made to think in those terms.
Jarell Quansah is a perfect example of both sides of the coin. Having made the breakthrough into the Liverpool ranks in Jurgen Klopp's final term, a season spent behind Ibrahima Konate under Arne Slot was enough for the England Under-21 international to push for a move and having joined as a junior, the Warrington-born centre-half brought in £35m from Bayer Leverkusen, meaning each of his 30 appearances in the Premier League was worth around £1.1m for the Reds.
It would be fair to report that Quansah's move was arranged somewhat reluctantly at Liverpool, who ensured a buy-back clause was inserted into the deal at around £51m. Quansah, it is understood, has also agreed the contract he would be returning to at Anfield should the Reds exercise their option, effectively making it a long-term loan agreement from Liverpool's perspective, if he develops as expected in the Bundesliga.
Caoimhin Kelleher, who joined from Irish side Ringmahon Rangers as a teenager in 2015 for a nominal fee, was sold last summer to Brentford in an £18m deal, earning his former amateur club a comparatively huge sum in the process after a 20% sell-on clause had been brokered into the agreement over a decade ago.
Kelleher was another who departed with a heavy heart and the best wishes after playing his part in a side that won two Carabao Cups in 2022 and 2024 while also providing Alisson Becker with high-quality back-up, making 25 Premier League appearances in the process.
There were many, in fact, who felt Liverpool had undervalued the Irish glovesman after his move to Brentford, even with the fact Kelleher was inside the final year of his terms at Anfield. Despite that, it was a tidy profit for a club who had signed Georgia Giorgi Mamardashvili to arrive that same summer to continue pushing Alisson for the No.1 spot.
Neco Williams was another who was on the cusp of the first team without ever establishing himself as a Premier League regular, with Trent Alexander-Arnold ahead of him during Klopp's time. The right-back was able to become a Wales international while at Liverpool and was sold to Nottingham Forest for £17m nearly four years ago, having made 33 appearances for a Liverpool side that was good enough to have won every top-level domestic trophy during 2019 and 2022.
Before 'Brexit' was officially implemented, Liverpool ensured they acted at pace to secure the signature of Stefan Bacjetic in the closing days of 2020, who was then a 16-year-old at Celta Vigo.Manchester United were also keen to bring him but Liverpool's relationship with the player's family, which had been established in the years prior to his impressive development at Celta, was enough to convince Bajcetic and his father, former Serbian international Srdan, that his future was best served with the Reds.The UK's withdrawal from the European Union brought about the end of free movement between EU nations and one of the key parts of legislation brought in was the need for players signing from outside the UK to obtain a Governing Body Endorsement (GBE). The GBE set a points threshold required to be met in order for the player to be legally allowed to work in the UK.The points system takes into account international appearances at senior and youth level, the club that the player is joining, quality of the league in which they compete, the position of the player, continental success and how many appearances and minutes the player has played in.For those who might not meet the criteria there is a process for clubs to make their case via an Exemptions Panel but the Reds' desire to land Bajcetic ahead of United was strong and they expedited the plans to confirm him as their player in the closing hours of 2020.
His breakthrough into the first-team ranks three years ago showed why the club were so determined to push on and conclude a deal for Bajcetic before 2020 rolled in but it's been an injury-hit period of his young career and loan spells at Red Bull Salzburg, where he joined former Reds assistant Pep Lijnders, and then Las Palmas yielded mixed results.
Last spotted in a Liverpool match-day squad in May 2024, Bajcetic has not featured for Slot, with his most recent start coming in a 60-minute cameo against LASK in a Europa League group-stage fixture way back in September of 2023.
The long road back for Bajcetic goes on but those performances in the early part of 2023 remain enough for many to believe there is a pathway for the Spanish midfielder and while it's unclear if he will ever truly make the grade on Merseyside, there is a valuable asset there for Liverpool one way or another.
The ideal scenario at academy level is, of course, to blood young players who are good enough to save the club tens of millions but at the level of the Premier League champions, where so few fledglings go on to have both success and longevity at Anfield in the 21st century, making a handsome return on outgoing players is a must. It's what defines a successful academy more so than the number of young players who become senior stars. And it is why scouts are present in Qatar to watch an Under-17s tournament.