In late 2020, when Liverpool waved goodbye to Melwood, their training ground since the 1950s, there was an understandable feeling of sadness for everyone connected with the football club.
From Bill Shankly's revolutionary 'sweat box' regime to the legendary figures of Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard. The club's training base in West Derby had seen it all during an unforgettable 70-year lifespan.
Despite it only being his home for five years, manager Jurgen Klopp was quick to pay homage to the Reds' iconic home.
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“Mixed emotions, really mixed emotions. I am happy about going to Kirkby and very sad about leaving Melwood, to be honest," he told Liverpoolfc.com at the time.
He added: "I will miss it, but that’s how it should be. Melwood was really good, it was important – an important place in my life, so I will miss it. But Kirkby will be great.”
The Liverpool manager couldn't have been more accurate with his prediction of how his side would adapt to their new surroundings at the £50m AXA Training Centre.
Aside from the clear need for improved facilities, one of the main reasons Liverpool decided to make the 6-mile move from West Derby to Kirkby was in an attempt to bridge the transition phase required for young players making the step up from the club's academy into the first-team, with both The Academy and the senior side both now based at The AXA.
Last season, Kaide Gordon, Oakley Cannonier, Owen Beck and Conor Bradley were just a few of the youngsters who benefited from the first full season in their new surroundings as they were handed the opportunity to train with the first team.
Under the guidance of Alex Inglethorpe, the club's academy director, Liverpool have worked tirelessly over the last couple of years to repletion their academy stock, with Bobby Clark (17), Gordon (17), Trent Doherty (16) and Ben Doak (16) all making the move to Merseyside.
Since January 2021, following the UK's decision to leave the European Union, clubs in England have been unable to sign any overseas players who are under the age of 18 due to FIFA rulings, which would explain the thought process behind the increased number of recruits from the shores of the UK over the past 18 months.
In the Premier League, each season clubs are required to register a 25-man squad but only 17 of those can be "non-homegrown," which means that if teams wish to maximise the number of players in their selection pool over the 38-game season then at least eight of those must be classed as "homegrown".
It was a rule that was brought into play by the former chairman of the Football Association, Greg Dyke, as part of his plan to increase the health of the English game and would ultimately help achieve the FA's ambition of winning the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Last season, Liverpool only registered seven "homegrown" players in their Premier League squad as they managed to fill 24 out of the 25 places on the squad list.
Those seven homegrown players listed were; Jordan Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Caoimhin Kelleher, Nat Phillips, Trent Alexander-Arnold, James Milner and Joe Gomez.
Given the high possibility that Phillips could no longer be at Anfield after the transfer window shuts on September 1, plus the questions surrounding Kelleher's long-term future at the club and the ever-increasing age of Milner and Henderson, the suitable, yet forced, tweak which has been installed by Inglethorpe and his staff at The Academy is one that could save the club millions in the long run.
English and homegrown players, as always been the case, typically have a premium added to their price tag when they move onto pastures new, not least in the Premier League. Manchester City midfielder Jack Grealish was a fine example of that last summer when Aston Villa received a mouth-watering fee in the excess of £100m for a player who had progressed all the way through Villa's academy ranks.
It was reported that any deal to entice Tottenham Hotspur to part ways with striker Harry Kane would have commanded a similar, if not greater, fee than Grealish's record-breaking transfer. And, of course, it was only last week German outlets claimed it would take a fee of €120m for Borussia Dortmund to wave goodbye to 19-year-old Jude Bellingham, who has been linked with a move to Anfield.
Evidently, it pays to be English.
Prior to clubs in the United Kingdom having to adhere to the new recruitment rules, Liverpool extensively added overseas talent to their ranks with Mateusz Musialowski, Melkamu Frauendorf and Stefan Bajcetic all making the move to Merseyside from the summer of 2020 onwards.
But as Liverpool are now forced to search domestically for Klopp's stars of the future rather than the pitches of Europe, it could in fact work in their favour even if their recruits are unable to replicate the likes of Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard's elongated spell in the first-team. Aided by the opportunity for the prodigies to enhance their profession at the club's state-of-the-art AXA Training Centre, Liverpool may find themselves as one of the only organisations to benefit from the mayhem of Brexit.
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