Liverpool turn to Kirkby as Iraola bets on youth
Liverpool have started the season with no first-team player born in the city. Curtis Jones moved to Inter Milan in the summer. Trent Alexander-Arnold had already left for Real Madrid after 20 years on Merseyside.
New boss Andoni Iraola is looking close to home for what comes next. Academy director Alex Inglethorpe, based at Liverpool's AXA Training Centre in Kirkby, told BBC Sport that Iraola and his staff spent much of the new manager's first week watching academy sessions.
Four young players have already stepped up. Rio Ngumoha, Trey Nyoni, Lewis Koumas and James McConnell have all featured for the first team this season after spending time in the academy. Each knows the route is short at Kirkby, where the youth pitches sit yards from the senior squad.
Alexander-Arnold remains the modern example. He joined Liverpool as a six-year-old in 2004. He left with the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, Community Shield, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup on his record.
Life for the next group is deliberately grounded. Phones are handed in in the morning at the academy. Contracts contain a clause setting a maximum engine size for cars driven onto academy premises. The idea is simple. Football first, noise later.
Keeping talent is the harder part. Manchester United have signed 16-year-old winger Isaac Konde from Liverpool on a one-year scholarship, the bridge between schoolboy football and the professional game, followed by a five-year professional deal, according to BBC Sport. Liverpool and United are in talks over a compensation package for the move.
Liverpool know the system from the other side. A tribunal, an independent panel that sets a fee when clubs cannot agree, ruled Liverpool must pay at least £2.8m to Chelsea for Ngumoha. Ngumoha left Chelsea in September 2024 to join Liverpool and signed his first professional contract a year later.
The search for players has widened. Inglethorpe told BBC Sport that the impact of Brexit on the English market is quite significant, making it harder to recruit teenage talent from Europe. Liverpool have increased their global investment in youth, the focus of a BBC Sport feature with Inglethorpe, which included Ndiaye's journey from Senegal to Anfield.
There is early optimism around the new manager. BBC Sport has also reported a buzz around Iraola's playing style. His willingness to spend his opening days at Kirkby has only added to that feeling among youth staff.
What makes this stand out is timing. Liverpool have lost two local landmarks in one summer. The crowd still sings loudest for its own. The next favourite may already be training in Kirkby.
