Jay Spearing's New Contract Reflects the Change in Ethos at Liverpool FC

While the 2010/11 season hasn't been one to remember for Liverpool football club, one Liverpudlian probably couldn't have seen it go any better.

Jay Spearing has gone from being on the cusp of leaving the club last season after an impressive stint with Championship club Leicester City to today featuring in seven Premier League games for his hometown team, including a derby game with Everton and an away trip to the Emirates.

This all eventually led to a new contract that he signed with the club today, according to the official Liverpool website.

Details of the contract have not been released.

Spearing hasn't looked out of his depth whenever he has played this season which comes as a bit of a surprise considering he hadn't done anything of note previous to this year. At 22 years of age, many people were already beginning to write the central midfielder off.

One of the biggest reasons for that was his height. Spearing is only 5'6" but has overcome that with his tenacity and bite in the center of the park. He will never win the Ballon D'Or, nor will he likely even feature for England on a regular basis, but that won't bother the Liverpool fanatic.

Spearing had previously turned down chances to move to Championship clubs in favor of living out his dream of playing for the club that he has been with since he was seven years old.

This is something that has enamored him to Liverpool fans in an age where loyalty appears to be dwindling completely out of the game. He may not have made the same impact as fellow youngster Martin Kelly this season, or looked anywhere near as talented as former Charlton product Jonjo Shelvey, but his passion and determination reflects the change in atmosphere around the club.

The appointment of Kenny Dalglish has removed the pedantic and rigid nature of the club that lingered after the Rafa Benitez spell. Benitez saw the game as a chess game—tactics, tactics and more tactics. Roy Hodgson was too fearful of losing his job to move away from his tried and trusted tactics, which was reflected in the signings of former players Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky.

Director of football Damien Comolli took the opportunity when announcing this move to encourage others like Spearing in the academy. "It's great for the club to have people like him around," Comolli said. "It shows others that if you do well at the Academy then you have a chance of getting new contracts."

Liverpool fans are often berated for the minority that speak for the majority when they say "next year will be our year" and gain great optimism at the end of the season. While I certainly don't see the turnaround in the club coming next season, there is a lot of reasons to be optimistic now as a Liverpool fan.

The removal of petulant talent from the club to be replaced by hard working graft—without losing the aforementioned talent—is a significant factor in that optimism.