There’s a famous image on a Liverpool FC training pitch of seven of the Reds’ homegrown talents posing together to commemorate the opening of the Academy in 1998.
Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler had led the way for Liverpool for most of the nineties, as the Reds enjoyed a golden age of youth development.
Dominic Matteo, David Thompson, Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen all followed in the duo’s footsteps, while Steven Gerrard was just bursting onto the scene to complete the septet, with the opening of the Academy supposedly ensuring many more would make the breakthrough.
