“There are a lot of good academies but not every club has a manager with the courage to play with young players in important moments. It’s not just about giving minutes. There are plenty of examples where he’s played with virtually a full academy team. There have been times when I’ve looked at a starting lineup and thought, “Wow, I can’t even do that.”
“Jurgen doesn’t just talk about youth development, he actually does it. Caoich (Kelleher), who will play in the League Cup final in 2022, is a prime example. It’s very easy to pick Alisson in the final. He believes in these players.
“Liverpool have a proud tradition of academies supplying first-team players and obviously you are part of that. But I’ve always said it has to be more than just a debutant. With the recent schedule and many matches, that can happen to many players. What I want is for the academy to play its part in winning club trophies and competing on all fronts. .”
In addition to more established first-team players, Klopp’s youth policy saw Ben Doak, Bobby Clarke and James McConnell feature regularly during this campaign. Like Harvey Elliott, they started their careers elsewhere before joining Liverpool’s youth teams, but academy policies across the country are increasingly extending beyond city boundaries.
“We wanted to win the battle in our own backyard first and get the best from Merseyside, but then we wanted to look further afield,” says Inglethorpe.
“There was a time when there were too many middle-class white boys in the academy. At one point there was 10% diversity, so we needed to work to improve that. Now we have a lot of different cultures. We have players with different backgrounds, so we have an advantage in that respect.”