For any player who’s born and raised on Merseyside, to be able to play for Liverpool is a dream to aspire to make a reality. Not many reach it, and even fewer are able to stay there for any length of time.
Connor Randall is an example of a player who has lived the dream and has no regrets despite not featuring as much as some may have thought.
Coming through the academy at Kirkby, Randall joined the club at a young age and would go on to spend nearly 17 years on the books at Anfield. Despite being a regular figure for Liverpool’s youth teams under Brendan Rodgers’ stewardship, it wasn’t until Jurgen Klopp was named manager that his real chances came.
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“It was good when Jurgen Klopp came to Liverpool,” said Randall in an exclusive interview with the ECHO.
“I remember when he came in I got the chance to go up with the first team and train with them. He’s one of the best coaches in the world and, for me, it was a great experience to train under him and train with the players that were there at the time.
“I went up into the first team under Klopp, so I wasn’t fully there under Brendan Rodgers so I wouldn’t have seen everything.”
After having a loan spell with Shrewsbury Town, his senior debut came in the FA Cup in October 2015. Klopp started the right-back in the fourth round tie against Bournemouth at Anfield, which Liverpool won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Nathaniel Clyne.
This was Klopp’s second home match in charge of Liverpool, but it was a much bigger moment for Randall. A moment that may not have happened had Klopp not taking over from Rodgers.
But what’s it like to work under Klopp?
What may be more interesting is how things changed under the German compared to the previous reign under Rodgers. Granted, for Randall he wasn’t a regular figure in the first team under the latter, but even he noticed a difference when Klopp walked through the door at Liverpool.
“What people see from the outside, the way that he is with the players and how passionate he is about the club and the football,” said Randall.
“He brought that and a new style to Liverpool, his own style, so it was something that was new for everyone. That was the main thing that he changed when he came in.
“You can see that now with the way that he is with the players and how the players are with him after the games.
“His man-management and how close he is with the players are probably one of the main things [that changed].”
Randall even recalls his first meeting with Klopp, which came not long after the German was appointed manager. After just getting a new job, Klopp would have wanted to see what talent was at his disposal across all of the age groups.
For Randall, he had been playing mostly for the Under-23s. As a 20-year-old at the time, it was in the early days of Klopp’s reign that the new manager decided that Randall was a player worth taking a look at.
“On one of his first days at Liverpool I went up to Melwood and then I managed to go up there time after time,” recalls Randall, of his first time meeting Klopp.
“He was very welcoming and I remember making my debut for the club under him. He was saying things like ‘just go out there and try and enjoy it’, that would fill players with confidence.
“You can see with the young players coming through now and how well they’ve done at Liverpool, that’s down to having a manager like him that’s giving them the opportunity and letting the players express themselves.”
While a first-team debut is always special for a player, making your Premier League debut is also a highlight. This, for Randall, came against the same opposition as his first senior outing.
An away trip to Bournemouth in April 2016. Randall played the full 90 minutes at the Vitality Stadium, as Liverpool won 2-1 thanks to goals from Roberto Firmino and Daniel Sturridge.
“I remember my Premier League debut, it was the away game. It was a good game,” said Randall.
“When you’re finding out the day before the game that you’re playing, you’re just full of excitement.
“It was a big moment for myself and all of my family, so it’s something that I remember very clearly and that I look back on with great memories.
“It was a dream come true to be able to achieve that, and it’s something that no one can take away from me. It’s something I look back on with pride and fondness.”
As a youngster making your way at a big club like Liverpool, it can be eased to be overawed by your surroundings. Particularly when you factor in the manager who has just walked through the door, and the players who you are now training with almost every day.
Not for Randall, though. For him, it was a case of learning from the club’s most influential players, and who better than the captain and vice-captain.
“As a young lad you’re just trying to take in as much as you can,” said Randall. “There were some great professionals there like Jordan Henderson and James Milner, and it was just seeing how they operate at the top level, day in and day out.
“That was the main thing to see the dedication and the work rate of those kinds of players that are at the very top.
“That just shows why they are where they are, and it was a learning experience to take in as much as possible.”
Despite Liverpool not competing at the top end of the Premier League or in the Champions League like they are now, there were still plenty of talented players in the squad. Asking Randall who was the one who impressed him the most during training, he didn’t take long to give his answer.
“Philippe Coutinho was there at the time that I was, and some of the things that he did in training was ridiculous,” said Randall. “His skill and ability, everyone saw that when he was playing and what he does now.
“He was probably the one in training where, in some of the sessions, he just ran the show. He was unbelievable.
“With players like that, it was just a great experience to be able to train with them, alongside them and against them.”
However, despite being at the club since he was a child, Randall could never really break into the first-team on a regular basis. Loan spells at Hearts and Rochdale would come, before he would leave the club on a permanent basis in 2019.
Leaving a club you’ve spent many years at would be difficult for any player, but for Randall this was ending a near 17-year stint at Anfield. He admits it was a difficult moment, but explains how it wasn’t a shock to him to see his contract not renewed.
“I’d been at Liverpool for a long time, but I think I knew beforehand that I was going to be leaving in the build up to my contract running out. There was no shock or anything like that,” admits Randall.
“It was sad, I’d been going to the academy since I was a kid and I had connections with people there and all of the staff.
“It was like it would be for anyone, the last day was sad but that’s football and you’ve got to prepare for it.
“Klopp didn’t really speak to me when I left, because at the time I had been out on loan and then I was back at the academy when I left.
“So it wasn’t a case of I was there, and I’d gone out on loan for the last couple of seasons. It was more the academy staff from my very last day, some of them who I’d known since I was a kid, so I was alongside them on my very last day.”
Next for Randall came a surprise move to Bulgaria. In September 2019, the right-back signed for Parva Liga outfit Arda Khardzhali.
Here, he would go on to make 11 appearances for the club. Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, which halted the Bulgarian league and cut short his time in the country.
Despite him not getting much action on the pitch in Bulgaria, Randall insists that it was the right decision for him to make at the time.
“It was just a fresh start and something different that I felt that I needed at the time,” recalls Randall.
“Obviously I had left Liverpool and I had offers and then the chance came up to go there, so I just thought ‘why not?’ Just to have a fresh start for something different that I thought at the time that I fancied giving a go.
“It ended up getting cut short because of Covid happened and the season paused and things like that.
“But it was just a bit of time away, and it gave that bit of appetite to come back to Scotland and want to play here again and rebuild my career from here. That was just a bit of time to try something new and get away from everything for a bit, but it gave me that hunger to restart my career and kick on from there.
So does Randall have any regrets from his time at Liverpool?
He said: “When you’re young and you play the game that you’ve always wanted to play since you were a kid, you probably end up thinking too much about the games and the nerves.
“As a young lad, as well, and playing for your team at Anfield, if I was doing that now I probably wouldn’t be as nervous. I think that’s what it is, it comes with experience.
“But everything happens for a reason, I’m in a good place now and I’m enjoying my football so I don’t think I can look back with too many regrets about things.
“Like I said, everything happens for a reason, so I’ll look back with good memories.”
Randall is now getting ready for his third season with Scottish Premiership side Ross County. After helping them to a fifth place finish last term, the right-back is looking to kick on and have an improved campaign this time around.
“It’s good here, it’s probably the most settled that I’ve been for a long time,” he said. “I’m enjoying my football, I’ve been playing for many years now.
“It’s a good club full of good people. It’s my third season coming up now, so I’m happy and I’m settled and hopefully we can kick on again and have a good season.”
Having spent the last couple of years in Scotland, Randall will have witnessed Liverpool’s latest addition up close for himself. Calvin Ramsay, who has just signed for the Reds in a £6.5million deal from Aberdeen.
Given that he was once a young right-back making his way at Liverpool, Randall knows the pressure that Ramsay will be under. But he insists that the Reds’ newest signing is in one of the best clubs to develop his game.
“I think he’s a good player, a very young lad,” said Randall, when asked about Ramsay. I think to get that kind of experience at that age is brilliant for him.
“To go to Liverpool now and learn his trade, to play under Klopp and and play alongside the players that he’ll be with and training alongside every day. That will improve him massively.
“He’s a young boy, it’s a great move and I’m sure it will be a great environment for him to push on. He’ll be training with some of the best players in the world and training alongside them.
“Under Klopp and the coaching staff there, it will be one of the best environments for a young lad at that level to go in and push on and improve. I don’t think he could be in a better place.”
Liverpool are now blessed with an array of talent in the right-back spot, thanks to Ramsay adding depth and cover to Trent Alexander-Arnold. Randall was a few years ahead of the Reds No.66 during his time at the academy, but the pair did feature together on numerous occasions for the academy sides.
Randall could not give higher praise to Alexander-Arnold. Given that both are born and bred from Liverpool, Randall hails the impact having a local player starring for their boyhood club could help influence the next generation of stars at Anfield.
“Trent has gone on to an elite level, coming in as a young lad and how quickly he’s risen up and got to the level that he’s at has been unbelievable,” said Randall.
“He’s one of the best right-backs in the world and playing for Liverpool, it's the perfect scenario for anyone from Liverpool if you want to do it. He’s carrying the flag for all the lads from Liverpool and anyone else coming through, he’s given them that hope as someone to look up to.
“I think it’s outstanding, the more players you can get pushed through the academy and actually establish themselves shows the standard of the club throughout, all the way from the academy up to the first team.”
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