Was - Phoenix Transfer Speculation

"From what I have seen and been told Bouzanis was the perfect example of a kid who was overhyped at a young age and lost his way.

His father was something to do with Australian "soccer" I believe and marketed Dean from a very early age through You Tube videos, stating he was the best keeper in the world for his age and trying to prove it with clips of flying saves when in his early teens. He was undoubtedly a talented lad who then came to Liverpool with much hype and was clever enough to base his goalkeeping style on Pepe Reina, adopting the same quick distribution, side volley kick and speed around the box.

At first glance this made him stand out from the other keepers and obviously was pleasing on the eye to those making decisions. Under the old goalkeeping regime at Kirkby he was given a big contract and was played regularly at Youth and briefly reserve level. We then changed goalkeeping coaches to John Achterberg and Mark Morris under the increasing influence of Xavi Valero and he seemed to lose his place in the pecking order to Gulasci and perhaps more surprisingly Hansen. This is when the rumours of his attitude started to surface.

At this time I was lucky enough to be a regular visitor to Kirkby and have dealings with Achterberg and on one occasion after training I spoke to him in passing about the older keepers and particualrly Bouzanis. It was the time when he was on loan at Accrington Stanley and Achterberg to my surprise (as they didn't usually comment on individuals) was openly critical of the lads attitude in general and particularly to being sent out on loan to a club like Accrington. Achterberg was a very down to earth type of coach with the attitude that you get what you put in to goalkeeping and you should be grateful to be playing the game at any level.

After this Bouzanis became more and more a peripheral figure getting less and less opportunities, tweeting more and more (usually about eating in Nandos) and obviously getting more and more fed up with his position at the club, leading to the very strangely styled and timed announcement.

Strangely I ran into the lad at Blackburn a couple of months ago when he was watching his younger brother have a trial with a couple of other Aussie keepers and I believe his father who I think has some sort of goalkeeping set up back in Australia. He seemed a nice enough lad but is probably I really good lesson in why we shouldn't over hype young footballers until they have actually achieved something with the 1st team."