If there is a plus point to the lack of big-name signings at Liverpool this summer, it’s that a talented crop of youngsters may find first-team minutes that little easier to come by.
Bobby Clark may have departed – Red Bull Salzburg announcing on Thursday the £10 million deal for a midfielder with ‘enormous potential‘ – but the majority of ‘Klopp’s Kids’ remain.
Jayden Danns burst onto the scene last season with a flurry of goals. He will be hoping to pick up where he left off once he returns from a back injury suffered over the summer.
In the swashbuckling Conor Bradley, Liverpool may have the best young right-back in the Premier League.
And then there’s Owen Beck – so impressive on loan in Scotland last term – Stefan Bajcetic desperate to make up for lost time, and talented midfield duo Tyler Morton and James McConnell.
Perhaps the jewell in the crown of Liverpool’s academy, however, may also be the youngest of the baby-faced juniors competing for a place in Arne Slot’s first-team plans.
Arne Slot has high hopes for Liverpool’s Trey Nyoni
Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Brentford on Sunday, Jurgen Klopp’s successor was – predictably – asked about the lack of new arrivals in the transfer market, as well as Clark’s switch to Austria.
And was quick to counter any concerns over both talking points by highlighting the talent Liverpool have coming through the ranks, with 17-year-old Trey Nyoni now a regular fixture on the training pitch alongside Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and co.
“You know already the answer. If a deal is done you will hear from us. Until that moment, we don’t speak about transfers of players who are not ours,” Slot tells the Liverpool Echo.
“(Selling players like Clark) is always a difficult one, as young players want to play as well. If they want to develop then they have to play. It’s always like this.
“They come through the ranks of the youth Academy, and either you are good enough to play for many minutes or there is too much competition in your position.
“This team, we still have a lot of homegrown players. And, one of them, (Nyoni) training with us on a daily basis who is only 17.”
‘Fearless’ teenager could soon make Premier League bow
Snapped up from Leicester City back in 2023, some have likened England Under 18 international Nyoni to Manchester United’s superstar-in-waiting Kobbie Mainoo due to the swagger and the confidence with which he patrols the midfield.
Nyoni was the breakout star of the pre-season tour, a fizzing volley from the edge of the box against Sevilla one that even Steven Gerrard himself would have been proud of.
“Trey has got everything in him,” Harvey Elliott, who knows what it’s like to be burdened with such expectations as a teenager, told the Liverpool Echo a few weeks back. He showed it the other night and he is fearless for such a young age, that goes without saying.
“He just needs to keep going and trust the process.
“We have gone around to him and spoken to him. And the seniors, who have been around it a lot longer than I have, they have spoken to him as well. He has got everything. He just needs to keep going in the right way, keep trusting the process and I am sure his time will come.”
Nyoni has made only one first-team appearance so far, in the FA Cup.
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