“The market is more competitive now around the age of 16 than it’s ever been. There’s no question that since Brexit, the landscape has changed and it’s driven up the price of young English talent.”Liverpool academy director Alex Inglethorpe is sat in his office at the club’s Kirkby training complex discussing the new battleground in elite youth recruitment.Since 2021, following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, Premier League clubs have no longer been able to strengthen their academy ranks by signing under-18 players from overseas. It has placed a greater emphasis on recruiting, keeping and developing the best youngsters in the UK.Traditionally, those who progressed through the age groups in a top academy tended to stay put if they were offered a two-year scholarship at 16. However, increasingly, teenagers are moving at that age.First-year scholars earn a set wage of around £1,500 per month across the board but clubs can try to lure them away before they pen scholarship forms with the offer of a lucrative pre-contract agreement for their first professional deal when they turn 17. As well as money, a clearer pathway to first-team football is used as an incentive.If compensation cannot be agreed between clubs regarding training and development costs, then the fee payable is determined by a tribunal. For example, in February, Liverpool were told they must pay Chelsea £2.8million, potentially rising to £6.8m with performance-related add-ons, for winger Rio Ngumoha, who moved to Merseyside in September 2024 shortly after he turned 16.Is Andoni Iraola the next Jurgen Klopp?Jon MackenzieGiven the impact that Ngumoha has made at Anfield, that already looks like small change but more generally, there’s a dilemma when it comes to making judgements about how far you should go financially to both attract and retain top academy talent.“You have to be careful you’re not paying a premium for players who perhaps might not impact the first team. That’s ultimately the danger,” Inglethorpe says. “The money involved is more significant now. As an academy, you just try to get them to 16 and then it’s more of a club decision around retaining them.“With senior players, there’s no guarantee that someone you sign will come in and hit the ground running, but you have certain assurances based on what they’ve done in their career elsewhere. With younger players, you don’t know whether they’ll be able to adapt to senior football. There is no history: just a feeling that perhaps they could flourish given the right conditions.”The Athletic revealed earlier this month that highly-rated winger Josh Abe had turned down interest from a host of Premier League clubs to commit his future to Liverpool. He has signed scholarship forms, with a pre-contract agreement in place for a three-year professional deal to start when he turns 17 in July 2027.Josh Abe is ready to commit to Liverpool (Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)Sources familiar with the process, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, say the England youth international was offered up to £50,000 per week to move elsewhere, but Abe and his family decided that his development would be best served staying at Kirkby following discussions involving Fenway Sports Group (FSG) technical director Julian Ward.Liverpool’s youth recruitment drive this summer is expected to include the arrival of striker Michael Mulholland from Northern Irish side Crusaders, Celtic defender Dara Jikiemi and goalkeeper Zach Trinder from Wolverhampton Wanderers with other deals in the pipeline.However, there’s also expectation that they will lose players. It was telling that Isaac Konde and Vincent Joseph, who have both been linked with moves to Premier League rivals, were absent from the list of new scholars the club recently announced.Liverpool had previously sought to limit most of their first-year professionals to a basic salary of around £52,000 per year, supplemented by attractive bonuses linked to their progress.However, now there are different tiers and an acceptance that times have changed post-Brexit. Prior to 2021, clubs had greater choice over where they invested when it came to under-18s. For example, Liverpool looked to the Dutch academy system to sign the likes of Bobby Adekanye and Ki-Jana Hoever. Now it’s a UK-only market, the talent pool is smaller and more expensive.Chris Dowling, the club’s head of academy recruitment, works closely with Liverpool’s director of global talent Matt Newberry, who is responsible for deciding which youngsters from overseas should be targeted for a move when they turn 18.In January, Liverpool paid Senegalese club Amitie FC £1million for defender Mor Talla Ndiaye, who was an unused substitute on three occasions in the second half of the season. “Mor has got an amazing personality, which has enabled him to settle really quickly. He’s still learning the language but he’s already shown everyone what he can do,” Inglethorpe says.