On what promises to be a dramatic finale to the Premier League season, it's easy to overlook the fact a former Liverpool coach could help relegate Everton on Sunday.
Such is the case for Gary O'Neil, whose Bournemouth side are at Goodison at the weekend with the home side needing a win to guarantee their top-flight safety and not be left relying on other results to go in their favour.
O'Neil has already guided the Cherries away from the drop zone having taken over from Scott Parker shortly after the 9-0 thumping at Anfield after 18 months on the coaching staff at the Vitality Stadium.
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It's easy to forget O'Neil's first steps in an official coaching capacity came when, in August 2020, he was appointed as assistant manager to Barry Lewtas for the Liverpool under-23 squad before being snapped up by Bournemouth barely six months later.
And he is one of several former coaches at the Reds Academy who are presently forging a reputation in the senior dugout.
That number was bolstered once again on Tuesday when Neil Critchley returned as manager of League One side Blackpool, who two years ago he had led into the Championship and kept them up before taking an assistant role to Steven Gerrard - another Kirkby coaching graduate - at Aston Villa and then having a brief, unhappy spell in charge at Queens Park Rangers.
Critchley had joined Liverpool as U18s coach in 2013 before being promoted to the U23s and, of course, took charge of young Reds teams in the absence of Jurgen Klopp in the League Cup against Aston Villa and the FA Cup against Shrewsbury Town during the 2019/20 season. It was a few weeks after the latter game he was first appointed at Blackpool.
Arguably the most high-profile former Kirkby coach is Steve Cooper, who started as a youth coach at Liverpool in 2008 and went on to be manager of the Academy and also the U18s coach, guiding the team to the FA Youth Cup semi-finals in 2013.
He then moved to England and took charge at U16 and U17 level - winning the U17 World Cup with the latter in October 2017 - before taking over at Swansea City and then guiding Nottingham Forest back to the Premier League after a 23-year gap and then successfully keeping them up.
Michael Beale had two spells at the Liverpool Academy - working with the U16s, U18s and U23s - split by a spell in Brazil with Sao Paolo as assistant to Rogerio Ceni. He then became assistant manager to Steven Gerrard at Rangers, who he followed to Aston Villa before taking on the main role at Queens Park Rangers last summer and then returning to Ibrox as boss less than six months later.
Plus, while not a manager at present - although he did have a brief spell in charge at NEC Nijmegen in 2018 - Liverpool assistant boss Pep Lijnders began life with the Reds as U16s coach at the Academy.
There are other managers with Liverpool links plying their trade in the Football League. Jimmy McNulty (Rochdale), Ian Dawes (Tranmere Rovers), Ryan Lowe (Preston North End) and Joey Barton (Bristol Rovers) were all on the books with the Reds as youngsters, while both Mark Kennedy (Lincoln City) and Nigel Clough (Burton Albion) played for the first team.
Meanwhile, Ian Foster, currently the coach of the England squad at the U20 World Cup in Argentina for whom Liverpool centre-back Jarell Quansah is starring, was also on the Reds' books as a youth.
Those, though, were all as players. The likes of O'Neil, Critchley and Lijnders continue to demonstrate Kirkby is a place where coaches can also develop and further their careers.
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