Despite years of rumours about conflicts first with Gearard Houllier and then, to a much lesser extent, with Rafael Benitez, nothing was ever heard of Steve Heighway who opted to keep an extremely low profile.

The academy director went about his job in the same manner as ever, keeping his opinions to himself but at the same time aggressively defending the right to run the academy as he saw fit.

Only once it had been revealed that he was to retire and his U18 side had managed the impressive feat of retaining the FA Youth Cup did he finally express his views.

One of the things that Heighway said was that ‘his’ captain was already good enough to play for the first team but this wasn’t going to happen.

True enough, nine months down the line and Jay Spearing - the player that Heighway was referring to – remains stuck in the reserves waiting for his first taste of first team action. This in itself doesn’t come as a surprise considering the competition that Spearing has to face given that he is a central midfielder.

Even so, however, Spearing has been playing well enough in the reserves to merit at least inclusion in the squads that faced Cardiff, Luton or Havant and Waterlooville in the cup competitions.

Which, quite frankly, is shocking. True, the reserves league has become a joke where teams play too few games and often it is a case of kids against kids. Yet this isn’t Spearing’s fault and regardless of all the limitations, he has been excelling game in, game out.

Apart from height, there isn’t one area where Spearing can be found lacking. He is a tenacious tackler, a great passer, the other players look up to him for leadership, he’s got great awareness of how the game is opening up and, lately, he’s been showing that he knows how to score.

Just as Heighway said, he seems more than ready to play for the first team. All that he needs is an opportunity to prove this. Whether that will be forthcoming, however, is looking extremely doubtful.