Neco Williams has today signed a new long-term contract with Liverpool Football Club.

The 19-year-old put pen to paper on the new deal at the Reds’ pre-season training base in Austria on Monday to commit his future to the champions.

He told Liverpoolfc.com: “It feels amazing. At the minute for me, I think there is no better place to learn and to become a better player than being here and working with the lads. I think we’ve got some of the best players in the world and we’re one of the best teams in the world.

“For me personally, especially learning off Trent and Robbo every day, getting their advice, seeing what they say, it’s only going to make me a better player and I feel it.

“I take it day by day and I am maturing in my game, I am developing as a player and, like I said, I don’t think there is a better place for me to work and keep going at it than here.”

Williams enjoyed a watershed campaign in 2019-20, earning himself a medal as Liverpool clinched the Premier League title.

The defender made his first-team debut for the Reds when he started the Carabao Cup tie with Arsenal at Anfield on October 30 before going on to make a further 10 appearances, six of which came in the top flight.

Williams, who joined Liverpool’s Academy at U9 level, also claimed a medal as part of the squad that clinched the FIFA Club World Cup in December.

He added: “Last season was my breakout season, but I think the more games I play now, the more I train, I feel I am becoming a better player.

“I feel I am developing a lot and, like I said before, learning off Trent and Robbo and getting their advice has helped me massively. In training I am learning from what they are doing, they are giving me advice on what to do attacking-wise and defensively.

“I am learning massively – there is no better place to be at the moment.”

Liverpool FC is giving local NHS staff the chance to get their picture taken with the Premier League trophy this week, in appreciation of their hard work and sacrifice throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

From Wednesday to Friday, the Premier League trophy will make its way to Aintree University Hospital, Walton Neuro Centre, Broadgreen Hospital, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool Women’s Hospital, Liverpool Dental Hospital and Royal Liverpool Hospital.

Hospital staff will also receive an exclusive ‘We Are Liverpool. You Are Our Champions’ lanyard as a small token of the club’s appreciation and a keepsake of its historic Premier League win.

Forbes Duff, Red Neighbours manager, said: “We are really looking forward to taking the Premier League trophy on a mini-tour into our local hospitals to share our success with all the hard-working NHS staff, who are our heroes.

“We are so grateful for all the key workers who have shown such strength, determination and courage throughout the coronavirus pandemic. We hope that our visits will add a little fun to their day and demonstrate our sincere thanks.”

Steve Warburton, chief executive of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Aintree, Broadgreen, Liverpool Dental and Royal Liverpool Hospitals, said: “The last few months have been particularly challenging for the NHS but this thoughtful gesture from the club is really appreciated by our staff.

“I’d like to congratulate the team on their historic win, which is not only a massive achievement for the club after 30 years but a real boost for the city as a whole.”

During the visits, both LFC and NHS staff will adhere to the current government guidelines to ensure the safety of the hospitals’ patients, visitors and staff.

The Premier League trophy will be making more community visits in the near future with LFC’s Red Neighbours team and LFC Foundation.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will never forget the season he became a Premier League champion – but Liverpool’s No.15 has already set his sights on winning more trophies with the club.

The Reds ended a 30-year wait for domestic supremacy by adding the top-flight title to the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup trophies claimed in 2019.

But, while acknowledging the significance of their latest feat, Oxlade-Chamberlain has stated that Jürgen Klopp’s squad are now focused on continuing their winning habit in the years to come.

“It will be one [season] you would always remember because of how strange it is and having that big break, and obviously what we’ve managed to achieve for the first time in 30 years,” he says, in our exclusive Champions interview series.

“That makes it really special for everyone involved with the club so we will definitely always remember it. It will probably always be talked about as ‘the strange season’ and at the same time the season that we managed to win the league. 

“But I don’t think I really think about that too much now. I think we’ve all had a talk and spoke about it, that this is amazing and we need to take this moment in and realise what we’ve achieved, but at the same time we’ve still got time left so why can’t we do this again and win more and more? Then in 20 years hopefully we’ll have a few seasons to talk about. So I think that’s what we are more focused on doing now. 

“We won the Champions League, then you go away on holiday, you come back and it’s happened, but you don’t think about that now. It’s gone and you think about those things in years to come, but whilst we are here and we are still playing, and whilst we are still responsible to perform for this football club, we can only think about: ‘What’s the next thing we can go and win?’

“So I don’t know what I’ll think about it, what people think about this season [in the future]. The only thing in my head and the rest of the boys’ heads is what can we do next season? 

“That’s the only thing we can think about now and if we have that mindset every year, we give ourselves more hope and more chance of having more nice conversations in 20 years’ time about multiple seasons and hopefully multiple trophies.

“That’s what we’ve got to focus on. That would make everyone happy involved with this club – and that’s what we look forward to trying to do.”

Oxlade-Chamberlain’s Liverpool career to date has, it’s fair to say, been eventful.

So, how would he sum up his first three years at Anfield?

“It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster, I guess, for all of us,” he states.

“I think obviously the team has taken massive, massive steps forward in those three years, from being a fairly inexperienced team at winning things to, in my first season, making it to the Champions League final then having the disappointment of not winning that final. For me, getting that injury [in his first season] was obviously devastating, then to see the boys go on last season and achieve what they did was another unbelievable step forward for the club and for the team.

“But, again, then to miss out by a point to Manchester City in the league – that can obviously take the stuffing out of a lot of people, a lot of teams, but we followed that up with going and winning the Champions League that year. 

“Again, that’s history and something that we all dream of doing and something that is new for all of us in the team. That was sort of the first experience of winning a trophy like that for anyone and obviously as a collective, for us as a team. Then to follow that up with this season winning the Premier League, you couldn’t have asked for it to have gone any better for us as a group, for the club, over the last three years.

“Moving from one club to another, you hope that these things are possible but obviously a lot of the time it doesn’t always pan out as well as it has done. So, it’s a credit to the team, the manager and the club in general what we’ve achieved so far but hopefully this is just the start of something special that we can all create together.”

A proud Trent Alexander-Arnold has dedicated Liverpool’s Premier League title to everyone connected to the club.

The boyhood Red and ‘Scouser in our team’, still aged just 21, has fulfilled his dreams over the last 14 months by being a crucial cog in Jürgen Klopp’s trophy-winning machine.

Born and raised in the city, Alexander-Arnold knows exactly what it means for the club to be English champions once again – but he does not feel he merits special recognition for his significant role in ending a 30-year wait.

“It’s a proud moment. It’s not just me who has done it, it’s the whole team. I can’t sit here and say that I feel like I’ve done more than others, because I haven’t,” the right-back states, during his interview for our exclusive Champions series.

“It’s the full squad, staff and everyone’s effort: the whole club has pulled together to be able to achieve these things with the fans, the staff, the players, the coaches, the manager – everyone has pulled together, everyone wants to achieve this. We’ve waited so long and we’ve been able to do it. 

“Like I said, that’s down to the whole club, the way it’s run and the way we believe our beliefs. I think it’s what we deserve and it’s something we set out to achieve probably last season but we weren’t able to do it. 

“We showed that a knockback like not winning it last season would just motivate us to go again this season and be able to achieve amazing things, like we have done.

“We’re really proud as a team and I’m proud to be able to see everyone in the city so happy – well, all the Liverpool fans obviously! It’s a proud moment for the club.”

Alexander-Arnold’s strong sense of civic pride and responsibility was again evident during the UK’s lockdown period as Merseyside battled against the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Everyone in this city didn’t expect it but weren’t surprised by it,” he notes of the region’s response to the crisis.

“When I was seeing it, I wasn’t surprised because I know the type of people that are in the city and whether or not you know people in the NHS or people who are struggling through the pandemic – we all just wanted to help. 

“I knew that everyone in this city just felt an urgent need to help because whether you know someone directly struggling with it, you know that there are people out there struggling and that the NHS workers need the PPE and people are suffering from hunger. 

“At that time of year, it would have been so difficult because you can’t be in contact, things weren’t normal – and they still aren’t now – but especially when things were at their hardest, those sorts of things were amazing to see. 

“Seeing others help, it makes you want to help. You want to do as much as you can, just to make it a little bit easier for people; whether that be raising money for a cause, PPE, foodbanks, making sure people are getting the right nutrition, making sure they’re staying healthy, fit and active, staying at home and making sure that we’re protecting the NHS was important. 

“It was vital to get those messages out and to support those sorts of things.”

Jürgen Klopp has won the League Managers Association’s Manager of the Year award.

Liverpool’s Premier League-winning boss was announced as the 2019-20 recipient of the prestigious accolade on Monday, having guided his team to a club-record 99 points in the top flight this season. 

“I am absolutely delighted to get this wonderful trophy. It’s really wonderful and I had already the opportunity to have a look who won it before and there are obviously a lot of big, big Liverpool names involved,” Klopp said.

“Not only Liverpool names but big, big Liverpool names as well. Bill Shankly, I think, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny [Dalglish] – it looks like he’s all over the trophy everywhere! Brendan [Rodgers] won it, well deserved. 

“And Sir Alex Ferguson – and I know it’s not 100 per cent appropriate as a Liverpool manager – but I admire him. He was the first British manager I met and we had breakfast together. It was long ago and I’m not sure if he remembers it still, but I remember it forever because it was for me in this moment like meeting the Pope if you want! 

“It was absolutely great and from the first second we really clicked and I wouldn’t have thought in that moment that one day I would hold the trophy in my hands, which is named after him. But, I have to say ‘thank you’ to a lot of people. It’s easy to say and sometimes I think it sounds like we have to say it but it’s easy to say in my case: I am here on behalf of my coaches.

“I said it a lot of times, that I’m OK as a manager, but they make me, they make us, a really special bunch of football brains and I love to work with them together. To work together with Pep Lijnders, Peter Krawietz, John Achterberg, Vitor Matos and Jack Robinson – it’s a pleasure. 

“I could carry on with the list forever because we have so many great people here who made it happen that this year we won the title, and I only got this trophy because of that, I know. My players, all the people that I work together with, I take this and I love it for all of us together and I’m happy to show you a few pictures and maybe we can make a few pictures together. Then we will all remember it forever.

“Thank you very much, a very special season with a very special award in the end. Thank you, I am really honoured to get it.”

The annual Manager of the Year prize, which was inaugurated in its current guise in 1993, is voted for by professional managers and awarded to “the manager who, in their opinion, has made the greatest use of the resources available to them in the current season”.

It can be presented to any boss across all of English football’s top four divisions, the FA Women’s Super League or Women’s Championship.

Klopp – who was last year inducted into the LMA’s Hall of Fame and is the reigning Best FIFA Men’s Coach – follows 2018-19 Manager of the Year Chris Wilder, with Brendan Rodgers the Reds’ previous winner in 2013-14.