By a certain Chris Bascombe
HERE is a fairly decent pub quiz question: Who was the last Liverpool manager to win a trophy?
"That would be Rafa Benitez in Cardiff in 2006, you idiot. Call yourself a Liverpool FC correspondent?" you all instantly shout.
To which I, with a hint of smugness, point out that is wrong.
The last Liverpool manager to win a trophy was Gary Ablett. He led a young reserve team to their title in 2008. A year earlier, former Academy Director Steve Heighway won the FA Youth Cup for the second successive season.
It is understandable that even the most staunch Kopite would overlook these successes. After all, certain elements of Liverpool Football Club ignore it ever happened.
It does not fit the current argument that everything good at Academy level at Anfield between now and eternity is a consequence of Heighway's departure.
When Heighway retained the Youth Cup in 2007, some members of the senior staff were utterly dejected. They'd spent years portraying him as a dogmatic dictator.
That's why Heighway left, sick of the politics and the undermining of two decades of work.
Under the management of both Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez, the clash of personalities and philosophy made Liverpool's youth system unworkable. The control of youth affairs eventually switched to Benitez in 2009.
There was resentment that Heighway had so much control over the coaching, scouting and recruitment of young talent, while players of the calibre of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler had stopped coming through.
Heighway (left) argued such things ran in cycles. Both Liverpool and Manchester United produced several world-class players in the late 80s and this dried up a decade later.
He also felt in the latter stages of his reign that even when good players were offered to the first-team manager, he chose to ignore them for political, rather than football, reasons.
Heighway left on a high and a low, clutching his third FA Youth Cup but so disillusioned he made an uncharacteristic public rebuke to his own club, demanding his Under-18 captain Jay Spearing be instantly promoted to the first team.
He felt Spearing was being ignored because the senior staff did not want to undermine their own arguments that not ONE youngster was good enough to progress.
A strong body of opinion within the club felt Heighway's demand for his inclusion contributed to Spearing being snubbed for far longer than was fair.
This view, inevitably, is contested by the management staff at the time, but it cuts to the heart of why there was so much distrust and why changes had to be made.
Since Kenny Dalglish took over, Spearing has looked the player those closest to him believed he could be. A sort of Scouse Javier Mascherano, reading the game expertly, breaking up opposition attacks but also using the ball intelligently.
Those who've followed Spearing's career don't see him as a late developer, more as someone who could have been a victim of the rabid internal divisions of the old regime.
Alongside teenagers John Flanagan and Jack Robinson (so impressive in recent games against Manchester City and Arsenal), Spearing represents the real difference between the Liverpool Academy of today and three years ago. Every player emerging through the ranks now feels he has a genuine chance of getting picked.
That would also have been the case had Benitez stayed. Having assumed control of the Academy, he would inevitably have taken pride in players who could back up the claims that his reforms worked.
He gave Robinson his debut, making him Liverpool's youngest ever player on the last day of last season. It was clearly too early, but he did symbolise the potentially thrilling new era ahead Benitez was leaving behind.
In recent weeks, praise has been rightly heaped on the appointments of Academy Director Frank McParland (who used to work with Heighway) and ex-Barcelona technical staff Pep Segura and Rodolfo Borrell.
They have reignited the youth system and the reports from Kirkby highlight all levels playing with panache and dynamism. Liverpool are on the threshold of exciting times, shrugging off the crippling shackles they'd put on themselves since the late 90s.
But in the rush to assign credit, let's be historically accurate and fair to all involved.
Spearing, Robinson, Martin Kelly and Conor Coady (another who could make his debut this season) have been at Anfield since they were nine. They were all signed on Heighway's watch.
To suggest Heighway's departure ALONE was a possible catalyst for another period of greatness - as many who should know better insist on doing - is contrived, factually invalid and disrespectful nonsense.
He had to go when he did, and plenty of criticism of him was fully justified, but it his overall contribution to Liverpool FC deserves better than the current levels of ignorance.
This was the man, after all, who has been thanked by Gerrard, Carragher, Owen, Fowler and Steve McManaman for guiding them through the youth ranks.
It is no coincidence that the last wave of great Scouse talent began with Heighway working in unison with Dalglish in the late 80s. Liverpool enjoyed the same sense of unity then that they have now.
Don't let the squabbles which pre-empted Heighway's departure make anyone believe that before he left there was no one coming through the system.
The players were clearly already there at 14, 15 and 16. They just needed the right guidance and coaching. And they needed the confidence to believe they will be judged solely on merit and talent, not hindered by internal politics.
The notion Spearing and Robinson, for example, were not seen as potential first-team players until a mass sacking of former Academy staff is a carefully-constructed lie.
These lads have been the best in their age group for virtually a decade. A player like Flanagan, who has rapidly developed in the last two seasons, is reaping the rewards of new coaching vision.
In the race to pat everyone on the back, we should also make another point abundantly clear.
If these lads do make it, most credit does not go to ex-coaching staff, new coaching staff, ex-managers, new managers or future managers.
Most credit will belong to the players themselves.
Carragher and Gerrard (right) have long argued that to be a top professional requires 90 per cent talent.
The other 10 per cent comes through good coaching, application and a bit of luck, avoiding injury and having a manager who will give you the opportunity amid fierce competition.
What is most reassuring for those at Liverpool's Academy is there were a multitude of reasons to explain why a youngster who was good enough to progress might still fail to make the grade two years ago.
Today, there are hardly any.
