Liverpool planning major redevelopment of Academy base

The indoor pitch will be inside a dome, attached to the current Academy building, which will be built over the current main pitch, while the new grass pitch will become the external centrepiece for matches played at the site.

The club will submit a planning application and have set a target date of 2028 for the work to be completed.

Academy Director Alex Inglethorpe said the project was “a big statement”.

Liverpool were seventh for the second successive year in the latest Academy Productivity Rankings, covering the 2024/25 season, which were released this week. They gave more Premier League minutes to their own Academy graduates than any other club.

‘Deep appreciation of what we do’

Julian Ward, Technical Director of the club’s owner Fenway Sports Group (FSG), visited more than 25 clubs across Europe to collect information and best practices before formulating the plans.

Ward worked for Liverpool for 11 years before joining FSG, with more than five of those years as Loan Pathways and Football Partnerships Manager and the final 17 months as Sporting Director.

Inglethorpe said: “I’ve known Julian for 13 years now and one of the advantages of him coming back is not just his knowledge but the fact he had a deep appreciation of what we do. He’s been a really positive influence and been able to support us in terms of where we felt there were gaps in the infrastructure.

“The bar is set so high now. You only have to look at squad composition now compared to 10 years ago. It’s unrecognisable in terms of quality and depth, so the challenges become greater for the Academy, but it’s something we relish.

“The mission statement is to get boys into the first team who are capable of competing for the biggest trophies. This investment will undoubtedly help us with that.”

‘Evaluate and innovate’

Plenty of improvements were made at the Academy this summer.

It now has cages specifically designed for small-sided matches, an athletic development area, a skills area, and a walled court for padbol – a sport which mixes elements of football, tennis, volleyball and squash.

There are also new floodlights so pitches can be used later in the day all year round.

“We’re already reaping the benefits of the changes,” said Inglethorpe. “We’re constantly trying to evaluate and innovate. The boys are here from six years of age, four times a week – you can’t lose that magic, you have to find new ways of them really wanting to be here.”

While the site was used exclusively by the Academy from 1998, in July 2018 the club announced plans for the first team to share it and leave their famous Melwood training ground. The redevelopment took just over two years and the first team arrived in November 2020 at the newly named Axa Training Centre.

The idea is that having both teams on the site shows a clear pathway for players to go from the Academy into the senior side. 

Inglethorpe said the prospect of even more new facilities for the Academy players was “really exciting”.

“We’ve always been patient as an academy, knowing where we sit in the order of things, but now it’s our turn.

“We’ve never had a full-size indoor facility before that would match up with a lot of our competitors. While I’m all for toughening them up in the Kirkby wind and rain, there are a lot of days when we have to cancel training or the quality of a session is compromised. It’s going to make a massive difference.”