City hopeful of tempting Walker from Tottenham

Manchester City believe they can tempt Tottenham Hotspur into selling Kyle Walker even though chairman Daniel Levy would prefer to push the right-back overseas if manager Mauricio Pochettino gives the green light to a move.

City have been encouraged by the fact Walker has met with Pochettino over his future and sources close to the Manchester club claim that Spurs will listen to bids for the England international.

Pochettino has insisted that players will leave White Hart Lane this summer only if the club wish to sell them but City believe Spurs may be tempted to cash in on Walker if the money is right, to help fund their summer transfer business, rather than hand the 26-year-old a significant pay rise to his wages, which are less than £70,000 a week.

City manager Pep Guardiola has prioritised signing two new fullbacks and has identified both Walker and left-back Danny Rose as targets. While the club are not optimistic over their chances of signing Rose, who could return from injury to face Arsenal, they remain very much in the hunt for Walker. Levy would demand more than the £30million that Manchester United paid for Luke Shaw.

Tottenham are also braced for a big bid from Manchester United for Eric Dier, who will get his favoured midfield role at Old Trafford.

Pochettino is targeting Ross Barkley and Wilfried Zaha, both valued at £30million, along with Michael Keane and Harry Maguire.

Steven Gerrard was waiting to address Liverpool Under-18s, the side he will manage next season, for the first time when the coach Neil Critchley ushered him forward ahead of a fixture with Manchester City. What followed was the kind of emotional speech that made Gerrard a leader for club and country.

There were no niceties. No tentative, polite words of encouragement. Gerrard demanded that they won every first tackle and let not a minute pass without remembering the badge on the jersey.

He spoke to the team like men, not boys, offering an authentic glimpse of the culture – the demands – of senior football. Bridging the gap between the under-18s and the first team is an area of development that is of most concern to English football.

“The room was so pumped up, I felt like putting on a shirt and playing myself,” remarked another former player who witnessed it.

City’s under-18s had not lost a league game for 28 months. Liverpool won 2-0.

Gerrard offers a diplomatic “no comment” when asked about his inaugural lecture, but his vision of the game mirrors how he played. When he quips that he will be encouraging plenty of “50:50s” in his coaching sessions, you sense it is only half in jest.

“My teams will be physical, but it is important you channel it in the right way,” he says. “As a player, I got many tackles wrong and went over the top a few times and had to apologise. That is not something I want to put into kids or young players, but you have to prepare them for the top level, which is physical and demanding and it is not just about tackles and competing. It is about trying to prepare for the last five or 10 minutes of games when it is hard and your legs are burning and your heart is burning and it is not a nice place to be. You have to get them to be mentally strong to be prepared for that.

“I’ve seen a lot of players who have come out of the academy with huge reputations and go into the Melwood dressing room and then it is sink or swim and a lot of them sink. A lot of them are shocked with the step up,” he said.

“I like streetwise footballers. I think all the top players come from the street. The kids in our academy are coming into an unbelievable place to work. What you have to drive into the players is that, while they are here, you have to make sacrifices and give it your best. Don’t get too comfortable because the hard work starts when you get out of the academy. But there is a pathway there because we have a manager [Jürgen Klopp] who will play them.”

Liverpool have confirmed Gerrard’s elevation as full-time under-18s manager from next season, their former captain opting for the extended route to senior management having rejected several offers to plunge straight in. By September, he will have his Uefa ‘A’ coaching badge.

“I spoke to Jürgen and we agreed after a few chats that the 18s was the right age because it still gives you a bit of a spotlight with the coverage it gets, but you have a place where you can make a lot of mistakes and grow and learn,” said Gerrard. “The other offers I got, it would have been in at the deep end and I probably wasn’t ready. The 18s made sense.

“I have been shadowing five or six coaches at the academy and mentored by Steve Heighway and Alex Inglethorpe. The deal with Alex was, if you’re going to mentor me, be honest and straight with me. If you see something, I am doing wrong or you want me to change something then tell me because, if you don’t, I’ll never learn anything.

“He talked to me about my coaching voice and body language in coaching sessions. He wants it to be the same as it was when I was a player, when I was captain.

“I haven’t had to make any big decisions, or any substitutions, formations or tactics just yet. But I am really, really excited and looking forward to starting it next season.”

Before his first day in February, Inglethorpe wrote to parents to urge their youngsters to treat Gerrard like every other coach.

“When Steven is on site, please do not ask for photos or autographs because, as used to attention he may be, he is there to do a job,” wrote the academy director.

Rather than a distraction, Gerrard’s status is added motivation for those seeking to emulate him. His words resonate more. “I hope so, because I’ve been through that process from the age of eight,” said Gerrard.

“I’ve had the injuries, I’ve had the highs and lows and that will help me moving forward as a manager and coach. I’ll treat players how I expect to be treated myself. I will be similar as I was as a player and see how it goes.”