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Liverpool have been excellent at developing talent through the academy in recent years.

Part of the job of the youth team is not only to create potential first-team players but also to generate profit in terms of player sales.

On both counts, the Reds are doing well.

However, every now and then even the smart folks at the Liverpool academy drop the ball and let a top young player leave.

One of the most famous recent examples of this is Anthony Gordon.

Liverpool released Gordon as a youngster, believing the winger did not have the size needed to be a success.

Gordon has since gone on to make a mockery of such suggestions and Liverpool could yet bring him back to Anfield in what would be a hugely costly move.

There are plenty of other examples besides Gordon, and it looks like 16-year-old striker Marcus Neill may be about to add his name to a list of ones who got away for Liverpool.

Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images

Having been at Liverpool since the age of 10, Neill left the Reds to join Sunderland in February 2024.

Since then, the teenager has been in excellent form for the Black Cats.

Neill has earned rave reviews from the local press in Sunderland this season and Liverpool felt the sharp end of that on Saturday.

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With the Liverpool U18s in action against their Sunderland counterparts in the North East, Neill sent a reminder to his former club of the talent he posesses.

The youngster scored an incredible 18-minute hat-trick as Sunderland smashed the Reds 5-1.

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Scoring his first of the afternoon after 50 minutes to put the Black Cats 2-0 up, Neill then grabbed another six minutes later before wrapping up the scoring with a penalty after 68 minutes.

Josh Sonnie-Lambie got a consolation for Liverpool on a day where they will have been left thinking back to a transfer mistake from more than one year ago.

There can be so many reasons why young players change teams.

The club itself is not always to blame.

However, at a team as big as Liverpool, they should always be aiming to keep the very best of their young talent.

Neill may or may not make it into the first-team at Sunderland, but if he does, questions should be asked about why he was allowed to walk away from Anfield so early on.

Players such as Chris Rigg and Anthony Patterson have demonstrated that the pathway is very much open at the Stadium of Light.

If Neill continues in this vein, it would not be a surprise to see him given a chance.

While it’s always good to see Liverpool youngster go on and forge careers, perhaps it should really have been at Anfield.