Jürgen Klopp: I can't wait to watch the Academy boys train
Jürgen Klopp is looking forward to having the ability to keep a closer eye on the development of Liverpool's Academy youngsters following the club's move to the AXA Training Centre.
The new state-of-the-art facility in Kirkby was officially opened today.
And, during an interview for LFCTV’s forthcoming feature-length documentary A New Beginning: Building the AXA Training Centre, the boss explains why he considers the fact that the Reds’ first-team and youth football operations now co-exist on the same site to be so vital.
“It’s essential, it’s absolutely important,” says Klopp.
“Look, I’m the kind of coach who wants to be really connected with these boys. I want to know about them and I want to see them and I want to give the other coaches the opportunity to watch our training.
“It’s not a problem at all. We don’t have secrets in the club so whoever wants to watch a session of the first team can do that.
“That’s one thing. The other thing is that we can watch sessions as well because we are eight, nine, 10, 11 hours a day at Melwood, or then at Kirkby.
“There’s a lot of things to do but there is of course spare time as well and in this time I would love to watch a session of the U12s, 13s, 14s, 15s, stuff like this, just to know more about these boys. Hopefully some of them I will meet them in first-team training and all these things.
“It will help the process, it will improve the process, massively. The relationship with the Academy, it will be as close as ever and that’s really good.”
A New Beginning: Building the AXA Training Centre - a special documentary detailing the creation of Liverpool's new base and featuring exclusive interviews with Jürgen Klopp, Michael Edwards and key LFC personnel involved in the project - will premiere at 8pm GMT on Friday November 27 on LFCTV. Visit liverpoolfc.com/watch to subscribe.