There’s a habit in football chat where any player from a manager’s old club gets framed as “his lad”. Sometimes that’s true. Other times it’s just a neat storyline that sounds right, even when the timeline doesn’t really back it up.
On Kees Smit, I’m not fully buying the idea that Arne Slot “knows” him in any meaningful sense from AZ Alkmaar. Slot left AZ in 2020, and if Smit was 14 at that point, the chances of him being part of the first-team manager’s daily world feels a stretch. Could Slot have been aware of him? Sure. But that’s a different thing to having a direct relationship, or a strong personal pull in the decision.
Good players don’t need a backstory
The simpler explanation is usually the right one: Liverpool will look at talented players because that’s what well-run clubs do. If Smit “looks excellent”, it doesn’t need to be dressed up as a Slot connection to make it make sense.
Plenty of top sides monitor the same age groups now. Scouting is wider, faster, and more competitive than it used to be. When a young player starts standing out, it’s not some secret handshake. It’s just the market doing what it does, with smart clubs trying to get ahead of the curve.
And from a supporter point of view, I actually prefer it that way. I want Liverpool’s recruitment to stand on its own two feet, not on the idea that the manager happens to have seen someone once.
Lawlor: talent is one thing, readiness is another
Lawlor is an interesting one because you can feel the excitement around the potential. The local angle always adds something too, and you want those stories to work. But the Premier League is ruthless. Being a great prospect is not the same as being ready to contribute.
If the view is that he’s “no way” ready yet, that’s not a put-down. It’s just realistic. For most young players, the jump is massive: the speed of decision-making, the physical demands, the week-to-week pressure. You can see why a couple of seasons of proper senior football matters, whether that’s loans or a situation where he’s playing at a consistently higher level.
The bit Liverpool can’t get wrong: the plan
The key point here is the pathway. If Liverpool bring a young player in, it can’t be another case of them hanging around the edges, getting a few minutes in cups, then quietly being moved on when it’s clear the bridge was too far.
There needs to be a clear ladder: development targets, the right level of loan, and a proper decision point where you either integrate them or sell at the right time. Talent is only half the job. The other half is what the club does with it once they’ve got it.
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