Liverpool have introduced an Academy wage cap in an effort to combat the ‘too much, too young’ culture in English football.

Teenagers are being lured to join the biggest Premier League clubs with huge financial incentives but the Merseyside club has decided it will no longer pay more than a basic salary of £40,000 a year to their 17-year-old first season professionals.

That will increase with bonuses such as Under 23 appearances and first team promotions at Anfield or while on loan in the lower divisions.

Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur have enforced a similar policy, which the Premier League would welcome across the country.