Damien Comolli talks exclusively to NESN

http://www.nesn.com/.m/2012/03/liver...d-to-.html?p=1

Liverpool FC Director of Football Damien Comolli Feels Club is Headed in Right Direction, Excited to Play at Fenway Park
Liverpool FC director of football Damien Comolli talks exclusively to NESN.com on all things LFC. The conversation includes his privilege of working for Liverpool, last summer's transfer window, scouting and the way forward with the Academy.
NESN.com contributor Alan Kayll conducted the question-and-answer session, attempting to get an in-depth perspective on the famous football club.

AK: How are you finding life at Liverpool?

DC: As with everybody who is involved in football, my life is pretty dependant on result. So, I have got a great life when we win and not so great when we don't win.
But I feel privileged to work for LFC. It is such a fantastic club. I also like the city very much, it's difficult to find people who are more welcoming than people in Liverpool.

AK: What is a typical day for Damien Comolli?

DC: It is usually a long and busy day but very exciting. If I'm in Liverpool, my time is spread with day to day stuff which involves interaction with Kenny [Dalgish] and his staff, players contracts, recruitment, meeting with agents, academy, medical, etc...
We have spent a lot of time recently working on the EPPP (Elite Player Performance Plan) as we felt it was an important step up for our academy.
Obviously the closer we get from the windows, the more work there is regarding recruitment and scouting.
I also travel a lot to watch games. There are weeks where I watch 5 or 6 games in 5 or 6 countries.
My philosophy every day when I leave my place is what can we do today to take the club forward,what can we do to gain five percent in all areas and make our organization a world class one.
The good thing is all the staff at Melwood and at the academy have got this in mind as well.

AK: When you first arrived at Liverpool what scouting system was in place and what changes have you made to this area?

DC: We have changed pretty much everything after a thorough review. We have made scouting in the UK a lot stronger from under eight (years old) up to the 1st team.
I wanted to give as much resources as possible to the academy and to the u14/u19 age group as this is a key area for scouting.
The work is starting to pay off, as shown with the signing of top young talents both from the UK [United Kingdom] and abroad. Frank McParland and Stuart Webber are doing a great job in this area.
Regarding the first team, we have increased the number of scouts but with more presence in the UK and reallocated the foreign scouts in areas which we think are more relevant to us. Steve Hitchen our overseas scouting coordinator has done a great job at recruiting very good foreign scouts.
The owners are very supportive in this area as well and will give us more budget to recruit more scouts abroad in the summer to expand our network further.

AK: Within the fan base people say you have signed x player and Kenny has signed x player, how exactly does it work when you sign a player?

DC: I am not sure where those rumours are coming from as they are false. Kenny and I work together, if we get it right it is together and if we get it wrong it is together.
As I said many times before, we would not sign a player Kenny is not comfortable with.

AK: We saw a massive turn around in the playing staff during the summer are you happy with the way it went?

DC: Yes, we are happy. We knew it will be a challenge as for instance we had so many players out on loan, whom we probably would have to move on, and players here at Liverpool who didn't get playing time and wanted to leave.
I have never gone through a transfer window doing so many deals.
Since January 11, we have signed nine first-team players and we are very pleased with the way it went. This is a long term rebuilding project. We didn't sign players for six months, but for a long period of time as we know they will keep improving.

AK: There are conflicting reports as to whether Alberto Aquilani has reached the amount of games played with AC Milan to make his transfer permanent in the summer. What is the latest on this?

DC: We never give information on transfer as there is a confidentiality clause in every transfer agreement we do, so I won't comment on this one apart from confirming that AC Milan have got an option to buy Alberto.

AK: Liverpool failed to do any business in the January window, why was this?

DC: We didn't fail to do business. It's a question of opportunities. There is no point in doing transfers for the sake of doing a transfer. It has to be relevant for the team and bring us an improvement. There were no opportunities to do so in January so we decided not to do anything. Our potential targets were not available.

AK: After the Carling Cup final win at Wembley you made some comments regarding "big" players showing interest in coming to Liverpool. Are you expecting a busy summer?

DC: I'm not expecting a summer as busy at it was last year. We only have a few adjustments to make.

AK: You have set up a relationship with Nacional in Uruguay. Should we expect to see deals with any other clubs across the world in the future?

DC: We have been talking to Nacional when we signed Seba Coates as they have got a great academy which has produced players such as Luis [Suarez] and Seba. That's not too bad!
If I remember well, out of the 23 players who won the Copa America for Uruguay last summer, 18 have played for Nacional at some point in their career. That's why we thought having a relationship with them would make sense. They were very keen to work with us as well.
We are looking at building other relationships globally, we are talking or about to finalize a few of those.

AK: What is your opinion of the reserve league? Do you feel a new system needs to be implemented to get the progession of the younger players moved quicker?

DC: Definitely! As I said before we have worked a lot on the EPPP for the last 2 years, a big part of this work being related to the games programme, especially the Under-21 league. This is something English football desperately needed, we are pleased it has been voted through. The idea of playing the best against the best in an official competition was very attractive to us.
Also our involvement in the NextGen tournament was very positive for Rodolpho's [Borell] players.
We can't wait for the new reserve league to start.
AK: We have seen four home grown youngsters make significant steps to the first-team squad over the past 18 months. [Jay] Spearing, [Martin] Kelly, [Jon] Flanagan and [Jack] Robinson all products of Steve Heighway. How important is it to bring through a new crop and do you feel LFC has the potential for them in the U-16's, U-15's, and U-14's?
DC: Don't forget Raheem {Sterling] who has made his debut last week! Frank McParland, Rodolpho Borell and Pep Segura have done a great job at developing our academy for the last three years and taking it into a new dimension both from a coaching and scouting point of view. We are now up there with the very best.
The quality of Rodolpho and Pep's coaching has helped developed Flanagan and Robinson tremendously. Their progresses over the last three years have been very impressive. Same thing for Raheem.
Now that we have got both the scouting and the coaching right, we can expect more players to come through. We have got a lot of talent from U-16s to U-12s. It is an enjoyment to watch them train and play.
Credit to Kenny as well as he's got no problem in playing all those young players. Good enough, old enough as far as Kenny is concerned.
AK: Finally, Damien, and thank you for your time. The club has announced a tour of North America in the summer. With the club being based in Boston and a game at Fenway confirmed, how important is it for the club to visit these places and are you excited about heading to New England?
DC: We are very excited to come to New England and play at fenway for the 100th anniversary of the ball park. Everybody at the club enjoys going to new places (visited Malaysia, China and Singapore last year).
We also know our US fan base will be delighted. And the most important thing for us is to put in the work necessary in order to build up a fitness level which will help the players perform throughout the season.
Alan Kayll is a lifelong Liverpool FC fan. He is a committee member of the LFC Supporters Club and editor of the LFC Supporters Club website