Former Liverpool youngster says he was once a better striker than England captain Harry Kane

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It’s always a joy for Liverpool fans to see a local player make it through the academy to the first-team.

With so many youngsters all with the same dream competing for places though, it is a long, long road for every player.

For every Trent Alexander-Arnold or Curtis Jones, there are twenty, thirty or more prospects who either don’t make it at Liverpool, or slip out of the game entirely.

This does not necessarily mean that they weren’t talented, though. The Liverpool academy is one of the best in the country and the standards are incredibly high.

Over the years, there’s no question that the Reds have missed out on some brilliant talents who they deemed to be not quite good enough.

Adam Morgan claims he was better than Harry Kane

It’s fair to say that Liverpool have really stepped up the quality of their academy over the past five or six years.

Prior to Jurgen Klopp’s time at the club especially, the Reds just weren’t getting enough out of the youth teams. Before Alexander-Arnold, there hadn’t been a top, top class player come through since Steven Gerrard.

However, there were still young players who got the fans excited and promised to become part of the Liverpool first-team squad.

One of those who really shone in the underage sides during the early 2010’s was Adam Morgan.

A striker, Morgan was a Liverpudlian and big boyhood Red who was prolific throughout his days in the academy.

READ MORE: Liverpool staff think they’ve got a brilliant prospect in their U18 side next season

This led to a call-up to the first-team under Brendan Rodgers, and Morgan went on to make three official appearances for Liverpool in 2012. In reality, it could have been a lot more.

Now 30, Morgan has been speaking to The Kop TV about those early days at Liverpool. Asked about playing with Harry Kane in the England youth teams, the Scouser says he backed himself against Kane at the time.

“At the time, yeah,” says Morgan when asked if he felt he was better than the now England captain.

“It sounds embarrassing to say now. At the time if you would have asked me do I feel at 17, 18, 19 do I feel like I’m better than Harry Kane I would have said absolutely,” he adds. “That was just my confidence, I thought I was the best striker in the country.”

Who does Adam Morgan play for now?

As Morgan alludes to, plenty of people will be minded to scoff at his claim that he was better than Kane. But, to be honest, it was not a controversial view 10 years ago.

Morgan had the world at his feet while coming through at Liverpool. He was as prolific as they come for the Reds and was an England U19 international.

Kane was also playing at the same level at the time and had failed to really impress during a series of loans in League One and the Championship.

But with Kane then established himself at Tottenham in 2013/14 and then further in 2014/15, Morgan was sold by Liverpool to Yeovil in January 2014, where he couldn’t get a foothold in the team.

Since then, Morgan has been on a journey through non-league football and has just signed for Northern Premier Division side City of Liverpool. Their careers couldn’t have been more different, but Morgan may well be right.