Melwood means so much to me and Carra... We’re building on its legacy to help kids shape a future
I’M so proud to be able to base the Fowler-Carragher Academy at Melwood.
I was asked at the launch what it felt like, knowing we were shaping kids’ futures – for the better I should say – and knowing that we are also taking on the Liverpool legacy, keeping it burning at our old training ground.
I would say that both of those things are what we’re most proud of.
Jamie and me each had academies that put a focus on education as well as football many of our students have gone on to university, as well as into the game.
And now we have come together to make something that could be even more successful.
That is huge. Not for us, but for the young people we hope to inspire, offer opportunities to, and most importantly, to help develop into rounded adults.
We are aware too of what Melwood has been. Me and Jamie grew up here. Everyone knows what it’s about. Everyone knows the history, the tradition.
We are both exactly the same. We have read and heard and seen the stories about the things that have happened here. We have been part of them ourselves.
I was sat in the old canteen looking out at the pitches on Friday, and realised that was where the old ‘pigsty’ was, where the youth team trained when I was a kid.
The young lads had the pigsty, the first team had Wembley.
And you know every kid says they want to play at Wembley... well, that was our Melwood ambition too, get to Wembley and get off the pigsty! It was just that bit more bobbly and boggy than all the other pitches.
My memories of Melwood from those days are scorched in my brain. You know when you look back at going into stadiums and remember walking up the stairs and seeing the lights?
Well, I always remember those same things at Melwood.
I used to get two buses to train there, every Tuesday and Thursday. Can’t imagine many kids doing that these days!
And getting into West Derby, the bus would turn the corner, and you’d see the lights, glowing in the dark of the night. Magical. Better than Blackpool illuminations!
I hope we can give the same feeling to the young people who attend our college. I hope too, we can provide a real amenity to the local community. We want to bring the walls down and let the people in, because they didn’t get much chance to do that when we trained there.
It helps that we have got the backing of
Torus, who took on the site from Liverpool. People thought as soon they got involved everything would be knocked down and masses of houses built.
But fair play to them. They wanted to establish a football project, and what they can offer is brilliant. Now we’re here as an academy, Beth Tweddle is offering gymnastics here, and Steve Parry swimming. We can also help as ex-footballers with the plans Torus have with the PFA, to launch dementia projects.
The scope for us and the PFA, if it can be done, is broad and something we really want to be involved in.
We want every former player to be welcome here. They always will be.
I remember Tom Saunders and Ronnie Moran coming in just to walk the perimeter of the pitch, always welcome.
It’s the old-school Liverpool we want to absorb here.
That’s a huge responsibility, a huge privilege ...and we are
very proud.
In our day the youth team had the pigsty pitch here... and the first team had Wembley