Kindergarten KOP
We’ve had the Busby Babes and Fergie Fledglings. Now Liverpool’s batch of precocious youngsters are the…
YOU will have heard of the Busby Babes, now meet the Kindergarten Kop. You could also call them Klopp’s Kirkby Kids, or maybe even Alonso’s Adolescents next season. Whatever alliteration you use, the point is Liverpool’s youth academy is thriving.
Amid 10 first-team injuries for Wednesday’s 4-1 win over Luton, the substitutes’ bench featured five teenagers and the eight outfield players had an average age of 21, boosted significantly by Andy Robertson, 29, and Kostas Tsimikas, 27, who must have felt like pensioners.
Both of those left backs still have plenty of football ahead of them but the pair, along with many in the Liverpool squad, know there is a cabal of youngsters waiting to take their spots. Some, such as Conor Bradley and Jarell Quansah, have already made their mark.
In an FA Cup match last month, Liverpool’s squad was made up of 10 academy graduates. This was not a cup tie against lower-league opposition. No, it was the trip to Arsenal and they won 2-0.
‘Nothing would be possible without these boys,’ said Klopp when quizzed on Bradley, Quansah and Co. And he is right — these players are not just making up the numbers, they are fully fledged members of Liverpool’s fight for a 20th league title.
While the likes of Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah may sweep up football’s Oscars in May for being the lead actors in Liverpool’s fight for four trophies, this young support cast should be highly commended.
Jayden Danns, the 18-year-old son of former Premier League midfielder Neil, is the latest debutant, coming off the bench alongside Bobby Clark and James McConnell on Wednesday from a teamsheet where you can smell the park pitches of youth sport.
Danns joined Liverpool aged eight, while Quansah was first signed from Warrington-based Woolston at just five. Others, like Kaide Gordon, have been signed from other academies.
The process of finding these uncut gems is much easier said than done. Liverpool have a web of scouts who attend youth matches and tournaments to spot the next big thing. For every one success story, there are hundreds who do not make it.
Liverpool followed Bradley for a number of years before offering him a scholarship in 2019. He was playing for Dungannon United Youth in Co Tyrone and was recommended to them by word of mouth, with two scouts flying over to check him out on a regular basis. Joe McAree, a legend of Northern Irish youth football, unearthed Bradley after being persuaded to watch him by a local referee. He told Mail Sport: ‘From the first day I met him in a cafe, he looked me in the eye and smiled and it just felt different. For an 11-year-old boy it was the focus he had. ‘He knew what he wanted to be, knew he wanted to get to Liverpool. This boy can get from box to box like a reindeer. I’m waiting patiently for him to move to midfield and be the next Steven Gerrard. It’s a fairytale.’
Another scouting report described Quansah as a defender who ‘eats up space’, before saying ‘how he towers above most on the pitch in youth football, is commanding and comfortable on the ball’. Watching him this season, that report still stands.
But Liverpool place a lot of emphasis on personality as well as ability.
One scout says: ‘I’ll be looking at body language more than anything, delving into their background story, family history and character profiling.
‘Human behaviour is complex, even at that age. Any top professional can see a good footballer, but it’s more about looking at the detail beyond that. We must acknowledge we are there to improve them as people as well as players. Don’t focus negatively on what they can’t do, change what they can do.’
Liverpool’s youngsters seem to have a theme of famous dads. Like Danns and father Neil, Clark’s father is former Newcastle star Lee, while Lewis Koumas is the son of former Tranmere, West Brom and Wales midfielder Jason.
At a younger age level Keyrol Figueroa, son of former Wigan and Honduras star Maynor, was spotted playing for FC Dallas in an Under 13s tournament. According to his mother, he scored 90 goals last season in youth football.
Summer signings Harvey Owen, Amara Nallo and Trey Nyoni, who was on the bench on Wednesday, were all signed from other Premier League academies. Brexit rules have made overseas trading of youngsters harder, so they have started looking closer to home.
Head of academy recruitment Matt Newberry, who also looks after loans, is key to this drive alongside academy director Alex Inglethorpe. Much emphasis, even from the age of 11, is placed on data and video scouting.
As Klopp embraced Danns on Wednesday, Luton boss Rob Edwards laughed, pointing at the teenage forward and saying: ‘I
played with your dad!’ A strong upbringing is a consistent thread among these kids, but they are not all nepotism babies.
In Bradley’s case, mother Linda knew nothing of football before she started her unofficial role as the right back’s agent and taxi driver.
Linda, plus late dad Joe, helped negotiate his deals and originally turned down the promise of a scholarship and said their son must earn one first.
Another key part of Liverpool’s young recruitment strategy, of course, is a charm offensive. Simply being Liverpool is enough to tempt many, such as boyhood fans Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones and Bradley. But in many cases they have to fend off interest from other academies, such as for young midfielder Tyler Morton, now on loan at Hull, and Danns, both of whom nearly joined Everton before Liverpool swooped to sign them at the last minute.
Speaking to Mail Sport, Morton explains: ‘I was quite a shy lad off the pitch, but you have to grow a personality even at that age to make it in football. I really grew into myself at Liverpool. I found a real love for footie and used to pretend I was Xabi Alonso in the park with my dad.
‘Half the first team are my lifelong mates! Conor has turned into a really top player. Everyone at the academy knew he would.
‘Jarell as well, absolutely brilliant — I’ve grown up with him and trained with him since I was six or seven. All of us have been mates the whole way through.’
The friendly spirit is echoed in the camp, with several of the youngsters meeting up with Morton in London for a trip to Winter Wonderland after Hull played QPR and Liverpool won at Crystal Palace earlier that day, including Harvey Elliott who, unbelievably, is still only 20.
Just because players are out on loan, it does not mean their Liverpool days are numbered, as might be the case at some top clubs who stockpile talent.
Quansah earned his corn at Bristol Rovers last season, while Bradley was Bolton’s player of the year.
Liverpool leave players to their own devices when out on loan, telling stars to put full trust in their temporary coaches.
But many are given a brief that no matter how many divisions they step down, the loan club is doing them a favour rather than the other way around.
‘I’ve worked with a lot of loan players and none have made a bigger impact than Luke Chambers,’ Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes told Mail Sport of the left back, now on loan at Wigan. ‘What a diamond of a boy, Liverpool are lucky to have him.
‘He immersed himself in the cause for us. We get a lot of players from England on loan and some have an ego, but it was never that with Luke, he was so appreciative of the opportunity.
‘He grew up as a man, hosting Come Dine With Me cooking nights with the lads.’
So while the biggest talking point going into this season was of Liverpool’s loss of experienced leaders — 1,776 worth of Premier League games departed the club – now all the talk is of Klopp’s trust in youth and an academy that is again the envy of Europe.