Have a guess where Liverpool’s academy director was while one 18-year-old netted a brace, another made his debut and scored and a 16-year-old came off the bench for the first team. No, Alex Inglethorpe was not at Anfield soaking up another famous night for the Kindergarten Kop.
The 52-year-old was, of course, at the club’s holistic training base watching the schoolboys train before attending a U15s match in the sort of sideways rain you only see in the north west of England. Not one to revel in the plaudits, Inglethorpe already has an eye on the next crop.
Some of that next generation, Liverpool will hope, could be plucked from those teams or even the selection of young ball-boys parading the Carabao Cup trophy around Anfield before the game. They will be inspired by the heroics of Jayden Danns and Lewis Koumas on Wednesday night.
One scout told Mail Sport last week that clubs getting it right at youth level is ‘like cooking a tricky recipe’ – you need a perfect amount of many ingredients, from coaching to sound attitude and shrewd recruitment. Liverpool’s academy coaches must be Michelin-star chefs, then.
After claiming a Carabao Cup trophy powered by young prospects, Liverpool’s academy talent was on display days later against Southampton
Lewis Koumas (pictured) scored before academy team-mate Jaydan Danns bagged a brace
But academy director Alex Inglethorpe wasn’t at Anfield – instead on the hunt for more starlets
Back at Anfield, on the pitch on Wednesday night showcased a bit of all of those things. In Conor Bradley’s case it was that stellar young recruitment drive to spot him and bring him over from Northern Ireland. For Jarell Quansah, who joined at age five, he has clearly been coached excellently.
Every single one of the youngsters seem to have the right mentality and attitude, though. Part of that will be down to the high standards driven in Kirkby, from the £50,000-a-year wage cap to the ban on cars over 1.3litre engine sizes and strict policies on mobile-phone usage.
Trey Nyoni is the latest to make his debut for the club at just 16. Described as a player ‘with no body’ due to his small stature by Jurgen Klopp, the midfielder was poached from Leicester in the summer and is earning plaudits across the game from youth football connoisseurs.
As one fan on X pointed out, Nyoni was just four days old when Fernando Torres signed for the club. Feel old yet? Indeed, he was born two years after Liverpool won the 2005 Champions League in Istanbul.
Latest debutant Trey Nyoni was born four days before Reds signed star striker Fernando Torres
Jurgen Klopp’s farewell run as manager has already been peppered by heartwarming stories
After a whirlwind week full of heartwarming stories, those TV documentary cameras might have captured a fair few episodes’ worth of Disney-esque fairytales. The affable Klopp will soon run out of superlatives to describe the pride he has felt at his young team.
But if there is one takeaway from this last week, he will want it to be that whoever the next manager or sporting director is, the best solution is often waiting to be unleashed from within. That is a theme that has underpinned the Klopp era.
If Liverpool fans want a new defender, look no further than Quansah. If there is an injury problem in midfield, don’t forget about Bobby Clark and James McConnell. No Trent Alexander-Arnold? No problem, Conor Bradley is knocking about.
The list could go on but the point is that whenever problems arise, Liverpool have proven that there are able deputies ready to step up from the academy to not just make up numbers but to excel. That £300m worth of talent estimation certainly looks a conservative figure now.
