Liverpool have made a happy habit in recent years of recruiting some of the UK’s most talented teenage footballers, and there’s now another name to add to that list.
Harvey Elliott, Ben Doak, Trey Nyoni and Rio Ngumoha are standout names among the gited prodigies who’ve come to Merseyside from other clubs’ academies, and the latest such raid has seen the Reds pluck an up-and-coming prospect from one of their biggest rivals.
Liverpool sign Lucas Clarke from Man City
As confirmed by journalist Lewis Bower and the official LFC Academy Instagram channel, Liverpool have signed teenage centre-back Lucas Clarke from Manchester City’s youth ranks.
The 16-year-old is a left-footed defender who’ll now link up with the Reds’ under-16 squad, in the hope of progressing through the age groups to eventually become part of the senior setup at Anfield.
The youngster took to his own Instagram profile to celebrate the transfer, posting: ‘Delighted to have signed for @liverpoolfc can’t wait to get started ❤️#ynwa‘.
Liverpool have signed Lucas Clarke from Manchester City's academy
Image via lfc.academy on Instagram
Clarke has plenty of role models to emulate at Liverpool
It’ll obviously take a bit of time for Clarke to get anywhere close to the Liverpool first team, but it represents yet another coup for the Reds to have signed a prodigious talent from Man City.
Becoming a senior regular like Elliott is the end goal, although in the shorter-term he can take inspiration from current academy gems such as Nyoni, James McConnell and Jayden Danns, who’ve all been handed first-team experience at Anfield over the past year.
His arrival comes just three months after LFC pulled off the signing of Ngumoha from Chelsea’s academy in a protracted transfer which required plenty of administrative red tape to complete and caused such fume in west London that the Blues denied Liverpool scouts access to their underage fixtures.
We wish Clarke every success with his move to Merseyside, and hopefully he can go on to make an impact in the Reds’ first team in years to come.