“Small five v five, three v three games. Indoors, cordon it off, no referees. ‘There’s the ball, there’s the goal – go.’ Proper street footy, no instruction, no drills.”

For the five to eight-year-olds working under Ian Barrigan, Liverpool’s head of pre-Academy recruitment, life at the club is less about strict regimes or scientific monitoring, and more about nicknames and running jokes.

About having Liverpool songs sang at you until you join in – whether you support the club or not.

And about breathless small-sided games played schoolyard-style in what Ian terms ‘the best playground in Europe’.

Mention any Kirkby Academy graduate from the past 20 years and the chances are Barrigan can tell you where they’re from, their mum and dad’s names, what they were like when they were Primary 1 age, and at least two or three funny stories about them.

A match-going Kopite since the late 1970s and a club employee since 1997, despite not actually being born in the city – as his fellow coaches enjoy loudly pointing out in the open-plan office they share at the Academy – Barrigan is as Scouse as they come, and his methods, though not always orthodox, are reaping majorly impressive results.

A significant proportion of the youngsters that performed so fearlessly for the first team in domestic cup competitions this season are products of the pre-Academy, including five starters and two on the bench when the youngest XI in Reds history knocked Shrewsbury Town out of the FA Cup at Anfield.

And that’s without even mentioning his most famous pupil, the one wearing an ‘I love Ian’ T-shirt in a photo on Barrigan’s phone, but we’ll get to him later.

“The pre-Academy is absolutely flying,” the 54-year-old tells Liverpoolfc.com in a conference room overlooking the pitches where he and Academy coach Roy Smith serenade the kids – and sometimes even visiting Evertonian parents – with choruses of ‘We’re champions of the world’.

“It’s been an unbelievable couple of years, [Academy director] Alex Inglethorpe has been a massive shot in the arm. What’s been brilliant for him and for me is his lad being in the pre-Academy, so he’s seen the experience and how important it was.

“He’s massive on: ‘Let’s not make it like Disneyland.’ Other clubs might take you to exotic places on your signing day, but if you want to sign for Liverpool, you do it at Anfield. You still have a fantastic signing day, but Alex doesn’t want it to be some big fantasy thing, he wants to keep everybody grounded.”

Barrigan joined Liverpool at the tail end of an era when players like Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher had arrived at the Academy effectively pre-packaged after obsessively honing their skills on the streets of Toxteth, Huyton and Bootle.

In the age of Fortnite and Minecraft, the street footballer is rarer – hence the insistence on small-sided games in Kirkby – but, in any case, ability isn’t the main concern when potential recruits are appraised these days.

“We look for athletes, kids with agility who glide over the turf,” Barrigan, from Huyton himself, explains. “We’re not particularly interested in football, it’s more about agility and pace, because if you think about it, if you want to play in Liverpool’s first team now you’ve practically got to be an Olympian. You just know, and once you get them in you’ve got 10 years to make him a player.

“Steven Gerrard wouldn’t have done structured training at six, seven, eight, so that’s why we’ve cut out being professional too early. The Gascoignes, Gerrards, Lampards, Suarezs – they need to be that when they’re babies.

“You can’t turn every player into a pass-and-move water carrier, and that’s one of the things I’m really impressed with about Alex. Truly, he does not care about results, just individual performances. Jamie Carragher started as a centre-forward and ended up playing 700 games in defence for Liverpool. If you sign a kid and just say, ‘He’s a boss centre-half’, he’ll be gone by 13.”

The biggest change since 1997 is nothing to do with technique and physicality, however. The youngsters vying for Barrigan’s attention across his north-west beat are now more culturally and ethnically diverse than ever before, especially in inner-city areas, and Academy staff have resolved to make sure that’s reflected within the Kirkby complex.

“Liverpool as a city is so much more diverse,” the former area manager and grassroots co-ordinator observes. “For instance, this year we’ve signed a Scouse Brazilian. Born in Brazil, dad’s a Scouser, mum’s Brazilian. He went home for Christmas, just after the Club World Cup final, and his uncle’s a Flamengo fan!

“Our aim is to get an U6 league in Toxteth, that’s the endgame. I went to Manchester a few weeks ago and there’s four leagues with five and six-year-olds playing – there’s only one in Liverpool, so the kids need to be playing football in these more ethnically diverse areas.

“When you think about it, if you’ve come here from Somalia or Syria, your kid playing football is probably right down the list of priorities. So we need to be more supportive of that, and I think the best way to do it is to work alongside the LFC Foundation and with partners inside places like Toxteth.

“What we want is a mum to be able to walk past with the pram and two kids, and her kid going, ‘I want to do that.’ We’re working with Liverpool County FA and someone who used to work at the Academy is now full-time at the Foundation to act as our link with them. It’s something I’m really excited about.”

Over on the opposite side of the city from Toxteth is Walton Hall Park, former base of operations for the Walton & Kirkdale Junior Football League. The backstory of Barrigan’s involvement with Liverpool – and of several young Scousers that have successfully navigated the long and winding road to the first team – starts here, on muddy pitches on Sunday mornings.

“My father-in-law was Jimmy Aspinall, the scout who signed Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman,” Ian recalls. “A player called Ian Dawes – who eventually ended up working at the Academy as a coach – had left Everton. I knew his dad and persuaded him to come and meet with Jimmy and Steve Heighway, and Ian signed for Liverpool.

“I was running a local team in the Walton & Kirkdale league for my little lad, so they just said, ‘You’re the scout for the Walton & Kirkdale League.’ And that’s how it all began. I had Country Park, and in one year when I was the club secretary 35 kids signed a professional contract. That’s the team Jon Flanagan, Adam Lewis and Trent Alexander-Arnold played for.”

To Alexander-Arnold, then. It’s him in the aforementioned photo, having borrowed the ‘I love Ian’ T-shirt after it was originally worn by Barrigan’s assistant Steve Gorst in a light-hearted video sent to players’ parents.

The bond between the pre-Academy chief and the Alexander-Arnold family goes all the way back to Country Park circa 2005 and remains strong now, with the former citing the latter’s participation in two Champions League finals and a Club World Cup final as his proudest moments in football.

“I was his manager when he was just a baby, and suddenly there we are at Anfield with the Champions League trophy,” Barrigan reflects. “I’ve been to six European finals following Liverpool but Madrid was proper nerve-wracking. Trent gave me and my son tickets and paid for our flight. After we won, on the day of the parade, Trent came to me and said, ‘Let’s get a photo.’ I was getting all emotional.

“We were at a rooftop bar in town with all the players’ families, and all Trent’s mates and family were there, and his mum Diane was crying, and I was like, ‘If I go over there I’ll be the same!’ I’ve known her since Trent was six years of age, she used to collect the subs for the team. Trent used to come to my kids’ birthday parties.

“Then at the Club World Cup, when Trent got the ball [before assisting Roberto Firmino’s stoppage-time winner in the semi-final against Monterrey], I knew we would score. I just knew.

“When we went to Kiev and lost to Real Madrid, again he gave me the ticket for it, and, to be honest, I have no bad feelings about it. To get a kid from U6 to the Champions League final is the ultimate, really. When you’re walking to the stadium to see one of your kids play in a game like that… it’s unbelievable.

“Trent is a lovely kid when you meet him as well, and what’s brilliant is he can inspire kids that it can be done, and we’ve got a manager who supports kids. He knows these kids will run through a brick wall for him.”

The progress of players such as Curtis Jones, Alexander-Arnold and Neco Williams just goes to show that there is no exact formula for success at the Academy, as the trio could not have been more different in their early years under Barrigan’s supervision.

“Curtis always had that bit of swagger, to be honest; a bit cheeky, but not soft, not going too far. I remember going to Japan with him and he was throwing peanuts around on the flight back. On the way there you can say, ‘Do that and you’re not playing’, but on the way back…!

“Trent’s always been good as gold off the pitch, but a terrible, terrible loser! If he lost a game of tiddlywinks he would kick off.

“And then you’ve got Neco, who never said a word for about five years. He talks now, but not then. You’ve got kids who are a bit cocky and kids who are shy, but Neco has ice through his veins, he doesn’t get fazed by anything. So you’ve got to be careful with the different types of kid you’re looking at, because everyone is an individual.”

For all the joy felt by Academy staff with so many of their alumni prospering, the memory of Stephen Packer, an U9s player who tragically passed away from cancer in 2012, is never far.

“He was a lovely kid,” Barrigan remembers.

“We signed him in the May and he passed away in the November. The U9s changing room is now called the Stephen Packer Changing Room. It’s then that you realise how much of a family club we are. You get people complaining about game time or needing a new pair of socks. Puts it all in perspective, doesn’t it?”

The nature of David Roberts’ job means every time there’s a divot made for a goal-kick or knee slide at Anfield it brings about a sharp wince.

How best to sum up Roberts’ role as grounds manager at Liverpool Football Club? 

“If it grows and the club owns it, it’s my responsibility,” he smiles.

Roberts and his dedicated team oversee the production and maintenance of all playing surfaces at Anfield, Melwood and the Kirkby Academy, along with any landscaping surrounding them.

It involves early starts, late-night finishes and state-of-the-art technology to deliver the pristine finished product seen on matchdays.

“I think the visual thing from a groundsman is you see us cutting grass, and everyone can cut grass,” Roberts tells Liverpoolfc.com from his Anfield office in the corner of the Main Stand.

“But the skills that are involved in delivering that and what’s underneath that grass surface, there’s a whole science behind it, there’s a whole knowledge behind it. 

“We do rest and recovery programmes for the pitch when it’s not being played on. Effectively, we’ve got something like one billion athletes out there that are performing for the first team to play on there. 

“Their living and breathing, we’ve got to manage it to make sure that it’s at its best health. We manage the nutrition, we do soil analysis, we take leaf-tissue analysis, we look at what’s needed and make a nutritional programme to match it. 

“There’s a lot of similarities to what our sport scientists are doing with our athletes that play on it. We do very similar things for the surface that they’re playing on.” 

Like every other department involved in the club’s football operations, ensuring everything is perfect for Jürgen Klopp and his players is the ultimate goal for Roberts. 

His team work closely with the first-team manager and the backroom staff to ensure the Reds play on the exact same style of turf they train on. Similar efforts are made when they travel overseas, too.

“We’re doing a lot more pitch testing now,” Roberts states. “So we’re looking at hardness and the interaction of the players’ boots to the surface and the ball bounce.

“What I said to Jürgen when I first started was that the main thing to do was to give [him] consistency. 

“Because what you don’t want is a player to think, ‘I’ve trained at Melwood but I’m going to Anfield and need to change my boots, the ball bounces differently, the ball rolls differently’. I don’t want them to think that. 

“So whatever drills he does at Melwood, when they come and do it on a matchday, it’s just second nature – it looks, feels and reacts exactly as it did on the training pitches.”

Klopp being interested in such a field is another example, Roberts believes, of his burning desire to eke out every advantage possible.  

David adds: “They did say to us that there’s no coincidence in the last few years that the standards of the pitches have improved and the standard of football has improved at the same level – there’s a definite link to it.

“They don’t ask for much. They asked for two top training pitches to the same standard as Anfield day in, day out, decent balls on the pitch, decent players on the pitch, decent surfaces and they’ll take the club to the next level.

“It’s nice to feel that you’re a small part but an important part.”

Roberts joined Liverpool in the spring of 2016. His first job in football was at Southampton before leaving after 12 years to head up the grounds staff at the prestigious Charterhouse School in Surrey. 

Describing himself as a ‘follower’ of footballer rather than an avid fan anyway, Roberts has little time to focus on the actions of the 22 players involved. 

“We spend more time watching the interaction of the ball and the players on the surface than we actually do the game,” he says.

“You watch the game but you’re like, ‘Wow, did his foot slip on that?’ You see a player go down with an injury, ‘What happened there?’

“The [hardest] game for us time-wise is probably a Champions League game. For Champions League games, we’ll work from 8am on a training day because the opposition will be in training before and we’ll go through to 9.30pm. 

“We’re back in at 8am the next day to get everything ready for the referee’s inspection. Then we’ll work through until 1am to 1.30am, so we can get the grow lights on it.”

Those grow lights – rigs of lighting to closely replicate sunlight – help preserve the state of the turf in the months grass becomes dormant, usually from the end of October through to the beginning of April.

Greater durability for Anfield’s playing surface was achieved when a new pitch was installed at the start of the 2017-18 season, with three per cent of it made from Desso Grassmaster artificial fibres.

Now, the latest project for Roberts to administer is regarding the first team moving their training hub to Kirkby, where the club’s youngsters are currently situated. 

It requires the installation of three first-class training pitches – one the size of Anfield, the other two being the dimensions of the opposition’s venues – a large warm-up area, a dedicated goalkeeper section and rehabilitation pitch.  

“What we’re really doing is picking up the Melwood site and moving it to Kirkby,” David explains. “We’ve not got any more pitches, we’ve got the same number of pitches.

“The pitches should be a better quality than we’ve currently got when they’re completed. The building is better, the layout of the site is better, so there’s a whole load of more advantages. 

“Jürgen is really big on [having] this ‘one club’ and that we’re all one team, trying to be part of that one big club.”

Busier than ever and constantly facing new challenges each day, Roberts is still able to take stock of his position – especially on matchday.

He concludes: “Once the warm-ups have finished and the players have gone back in the dressing room to get ready, we’ll make sure everything is put away and we’ll do one final sweep across the pitch to make sure no damage has been done from the warm-up sessions.

“We’re pretty much walking off the pitch as the teams come back out. As soon as you get that roar from the crowd, the hairs on the back of the neck stand up.

“A lot of times it’s a job, you come out, you’re on Anfield, but it is just a piece of grass that you’re maintaining.

“But every so often you look up and go, ‘I am on Anfield!'”

A feeling surely worthy of a knee slide.

Liverpool FC staff volunteers have been working alongside the club’s community programme, Red Neighbours, and its official charity, LFC Foundation, to help local people throughout the city during the coronavirus pandemic.

As part of the ‘Unity is Strength’ project, staff from across the club have volunteered their time to help a range of initiatives, including the North Liverpool Foodbank, the club’s LFC Connect programme, and delivering treats and welfare packages to key workers and those in need.

LFC Connect calls take place on weekdays between 9am and 4pm, offering a friendly chat to help reduce feelings of isolation among those most vulnerable within the local community.

Bev Phillips, fan services specialist, felt compelled to help in some way as soon as the nationwide lockdown was announced in March.

“I registered straight away for the staff volunteering scheme as I just wanted to do my bit to help others during this tough time,” said Bev.

“When the LFC Connect service was launched I knew that was something I really wanted to be involved in.

“It’s benefited so many people already. Some of the people I’ve spoken to, they have no family close to them, so just knowing we will be calling them every week makes such a huge difference. It brightens their day, lets them know that people do care and they are not completely alone during this time. A small act of kindness can make such a big difference to someone else’s day.”

As someone who is also spending lockdown alone, Bev credits the volunteering scheme with helping her own mental wellbeing as well as those she has spoken to through the programme.

She added: “I’m self-isolating on my own, so the interaction has really benefited me as well. Just something as simple as having a conversation with someone not only gives them a lift but also adds a lot of positivity to your own day.”

Alongside making calls with LFC Connect, Bev has also volunteered at the North Liverpool Foodbank, helping to ensure it can continue its vital service during the lockdown by unloading food deliveries and packing three-day emergency food parcels for those in need. 

LFC staff volunteers attend the foodbank in two-hour time slots from Monday to Friday and follow strict protection guidelines to ensure their safety and the safety of others, including social distancing, wearing personal protective equipment and regular hand washing/sanitising.

The central foodbank hub, which has been turned into the city’s main food storage venue, was also sprayed with sanitiser by infection control specialists in advance of the volunteering beginning.

Bev said: “The foodbanks have been massively affected by the lockdown and the absence of football matches, so again it was something I felt really strongly about getting involved in.

“It’s been so nice to see people from across the city working for the greater good and helping those less fortunate. It’s saddening to know these services need to exist, but at the same time it’s been inspiring to see so many people give up their time to help others.”

Liverpool Football Club would like to update supporters on its proposed expansion of the Anfield Road stand.

• Project paused due to impact COVID-19 lockdown delays are having on the construction and build programme.

• The complex build must be completed between seasons and therefore the impact is at least a 12-month pause.

• Earliest target for project completion is summer 2023 (original target was summer 2022)

The club began a two-stage consultation with local residents, groups and businesses, and supporters in November last year and aimed to submit its planning application in spring 2020.

LFC said from the outset that for the expansion to go ahead it would need certainty on three key areas – agreement from the local neighbourhood that they will allow the expansion to proceed; a financial and economic model in place to deliver a long-term sustainable Anfield; and our ability to navigate the complex planning landscape.

The proposed 18-month build schedule for the Anfield Road expansion project is similar to the Main Stand. It is a complex construction process which is highly dependent on a wide range of time-sensitive variables. These include procurement, construction, sub-contractors, supply chain and the football calendar to ensure minimal impact for supporters by having two summer windows to complete the project.

On reviewing the delays that the COVID-19 pandemic has had, and will continue to have for the foreseeable future, coupled with the high levels of uncertainty in the construction industry, it is with regret that the club has paused its proposal to expand the Anfield Road stand for at least 12 months. The earliest target date for completion is now summer 2023.

Liverpool FC’s chief operating officer, Andy Hughes, said: “We have experienced a number of delays to the planned project as a direct result of the COVID-19 lockdown. Given the challenges that many sectors are facing right now, including the construction, procurement and public sectors, we are taking a responsible approach to pause the project for at least 12 months.

“The complex build programme for Anfield Road is an 18-month process and needs two clear summer closed season windows in order for it to be successful. This is why we are pausing on the project for at least 12 months so the earliest we could complete the programme is summer 2023 rather than summer 2022 as originally planned. Given the planning application is no longer time-critical, it is our intention to submit our planning application at some stage during the next 12 months.

“We will use this period to review and consider options. When the football calendar and the wider delays to the construction and supply chain industries begin to plateau, we will provide further updates.

“We understand this is disappointing for many, as it is for us, but would like to thank all our key stakeholders, including local neighbours in Anfield, our supporters, the City Council and others for their great cooperation in the pre-planning stages.

“Our priority remains on the health and wellbeing of our people, the local community and supporters at this challenging time. Our thoughts are with all those affected by COVID-19.”