GROWING PAINS!
Klopp must discover why it’s Everton, not Liverpool, who snap up the best local kids
WHEN Jurgen Klopp marched into Liverpool’s academy l ast Saturday, he was immediately confronted by history.
Just through the main doors at the centre in Kirkby, mounted on the wall, are the shirts of some iconic graduates: Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Raheem Sterling.
The jerseys are there to inspire, but Sterling’s name jars. Yes, he progressed to play for the first team but he was brought in from Queens Park Rangers. He was not developed by Liverpool.
Put another way, it is more than 15 years since a local boy managed to get his name up in lights.
Across town, it is a different story. Everton have been the club with the Scouse heartbeat. Since the turn of the century Wayne Rooney, Leon Osman, Jack Rodwell and Ross Barkley have all been taken from local leagues, nurtured and progressed to become England internationals.
At Everton’s Finch Farm base, there has been a clear line of progression. The corridors that lead from the Academy changing rooms have life- size pictures of the players who have worked their way up to star in the Premier League. There are, at present, more than 20 of them.
There are key reasons for this. There is a friendliness at Finch Farm that leaves parents believing this is where their children will be best looked after. Everton have been outstanding i n selling a dream, providing proof youngsters will be given a chance.
They have always had academy graduates around the team, from Francis Jeffers in the late 1990s right through to defender Tyias Browning, who played in the recent Merseyside derby, Everton have been able to back up their promises with evidence: if you are good enough, you will get a chance.
It is no coincidence that five 16- year- olds have played f or Everton in the Premier League.
Aside from that, training at the same complex as the first team gives them an incentive to impress. If someone in the senior ranks picks up an injury during a session, it takes only five minutes for a replacement to be drafted in from the schooling pitches.
Liverpool’s academy, meanwhile, is eight miles from where the senior team train at Melwood and is regarded as clinical and lacking in atmosphere. The facilities are state- of-the-art but a common complaint from those who have worked there is that it lacks a Liverpudlian soul.
The disenchantment has led to players and staff l eaving, and recently seven members of staff, including groundsmen and scouts, have moved to Manchester City’s academy, where Rodolfo Borrell, former Liverpool academy coach, now works as international technical director.
More than anything, though, Everton’s recruitment and scouting has been better. It helped, of course, that Rooney and Barkley had natural affinities to the club, but once Everton had a chance to sign them, they made sure those players were theirs.
This is something, then, that Klopp must endeavour to put right. It is all very well talking about winning titles and conquering Europe but the biggest thing the German must do is give Liverpool back their local identity.
‘The door is pretty wide open and I don’t care about experience,’ Klopp has said. On the balcony at Kirkby, with a steaming cup of coffee in hand, he will have been taken by the way Ovie Ejaria scored the only goal of a keenly contested Under 18 game against Stoke, pouncing from 12 yards after his scurrying had forced a mistake from his marker.
With Klopp, who advocates relentless running, it is a case of press to impress. This was a beneficial morning. ‘It is vitally important that the manager gets the drift of what is happening down there,’ said former Liverpool defender Gary Gillespie, who now works for the club’s TV station.
IT WILL be fascinating how Klopp develops pl ayers such as Jordan Rossiter, the 18-year- old midfielder who was born in Maghull and grew up idolising Gerrard. Rossiter made a handful of appearances under Brendan Rodgers and hopes are high for him.
Jon Flanagan, held back by injuries for the past 18 months, also has qualities that will impress Klopp. Younger still is Trent Alexander-Arnold, a 17-year-old born in West Derby, the same district as the Melwood training ground. He recently signed his first professional contract and is with England at the Under 17 World Cup.
Alexander-Arnold played as a right back in a pre-season friendly against Swindon and received a name-check in Gerrard’s recently published autobiography, as did Herbie Kane, a 16- year- ol d midfielder who was brought to the club from Bristol.
There is local talent at Liverpool — the Under 18s recently demolished Manchester United 4-0 at Carrington, with Alexander-Arnold scoring two of the goals — but there is nowhere near enough where it matters most.
Klopp, who took his first proper training session yesterday, is ready to show there is hope and that it is possible for those who grew up in the areas surrounding Anfield to make it on to the pitch.
If they accept his challenge, the chances will come.