The emergence of John Flanagan and Jack Robinson from the ashes of a disappointing season for Liverpool has given everyone at the club renewed hope for the future.
The young defenders have been thrust into first-team action because of a number of injuries suffered by Kenny Dalglish's side, who were already low on options at the back.
Flanagan, 18, could not have had a tougher start to his senior career having made his debut with a start against Manchester City and then retaining his place in the side to face Arsenal.
Robinson, who became the club's youngest player aged 16 years and 250 days with a substitute appearance against Hull City in the final match of last season, came off the bench at Emirates Stadium after Fabio Aurelio was injured.
The pair have more than adequately acquitted themselves and there appears to be more cause for optimism with the likes of 16-year-olds Raheem Sterling and Adam Morgan also on the club's books. With former youth team captain Jay Spearing, now 22, also impressing in recent weeks, the road from the academy in Kirkby to Anfield appears to be opening up once again after a decade of decline.
Frank McParland, the academy director, is hopeful the production line will start churning out more young talent, with 30 players from the academy already having been called up for international duty.
"It proves that the work the staff are doing here is paying off," he said. "We think we have a lot of good players and the fact over 30 have been called up shows we are doing the right things.
"But the highlight for me is when our manager phones up and asks to take a couple of the lads up to Melwood to train with the first team. Obviously a couple of them have gone on and played for Dalglish over the past week or so and that's exactly what our aim is.
"Our job is to keep working with all the players here to get them in a position where they may get a chance to show what they can do. Nothing would give us greater satisfaction than to get players into the first team."
Flanagan and Robinson may have begun that process but McParland is keen for them not to get carried away.
"They've both played two games each now and that's fantastic for them," he said. "But we can start talking about them as first teamers when they've played 200 games."
