Academy column: BR was honest with them

The former Tottenham man arrived on Merseyside in November 2012 to assume the role left vacant by Rodolfo Borrell's promotion to academy technical director.

And in his first column for Liverpoolfc.com, Alex gives us his opinion on this week's first-team visit to the Academy and explains how he has found the first three months adjusting to life on Merseyside.

He also reflects on the one thing that really took him aback when he first came to the city - the fact that you're either a Red or a Blue...

Earlier this week we held a day at the Academy during which the first-team players and staff came over to coach and interact with our youngsters.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend but I'm in no doubt that the idea and the concept of integrating the senior players with the Academy is a fantastic one.

The Melwood lads threw themselves into it - Luis Suarez was like a little kid in the playground, from what I am led to believe. He really enjoyed working with the younger players and I think he became quite competitive by the end of it all!

The fact that he could be so motivated to play against 10-year-olds is just fantastic. There is one picture from the day where Suarez is jokingly staring-out one of the young players and you can see how much he is enjoying himself.

The fact that Brendan Rodgers came and spoke with the U18s and U21s and took questions from them was another important aspect of the day. It was a unique opportunity for them to ask him some really pertinent questions about how they will get through to Melwood.

The lads who spoke to Brendan told me how impressed they were with his honest and candid responses to their questions. Brendan is a terrific communicator.

I also think that the fact he was part of the youth and reserve team set-ups at Chelsea and Reading meant that on Tuesday he was open to offering a unique perspective of how he saw the young players progressing.

Everyone will take something from the day - the staff also found it very enlightening just listening to the manager talk and seeing how openly he responded to the questions asked.

I'd love to see this happen again but you have to appreciate how hard the first team work. Some people think that the life of a footballer can be fairly easy, but there are so many commitments and then there is the travel and everything that goes with it.

But I think if there is an opportunity to do this again, then the benefits will be incredible for our young players. To speak with and be alongside their idols helps them understand where they want to be in the future.

Their dreams come that bit closer to reality when they have access to the likes of Steven Gerrard and the other players.

I've been at the club since November and I'm settling in. I was very lucky in that the games programme when I arrived was so busy.  

We had a NextGen match after three or four days against Borussia Dortmund. Then there was a league game shortly afterwards away to Fulham, then we had another away game against Crystal Palace and then I was away in Singapore where we played Singapore and Sporting Lisbon.

I was lucky in as much I was thrown in at the deep end and the sessions came thick and fast. It was a great chance to get to know the players. The initial month was fairly full-on. Then we had the Christmas period and the break afterwards due to the weather which made things a little harder.

Then we had a disastrous run of injuries - which hasn't helped. When you see young players, who you are really looking forward to working with, like Brad Smith, Samed Yesil and now Marc Pelosi suffer injuries, it can be very, very difficult.

The group has changed too. Michael Ngoo, Jack Robinson, Danny Wilson, Dani Pacheco have all gone out on loan and Jon Flanagan has been injured.

But it's been a great experience. I look at it like this: the Academy is just a building - it's the staff and the players in it that make it real and bring it to life and add the soul to the place. At the minute, there is plenty of that at Kirkby.

And there are so many fantastic players who have worked here in the past. This place has its own tradition and histories and I love the fact that when you arrive in the morning, it feels like a football place. 

The key for us is to try to create a future. We're really keen that we keep on that line of getting players into Melwood.

The advantage of having a separate facility is that you can be very independent in your thinking, but the downside is that the players have to learn very quickly that it's not about here. It's about getting into Melwood and surviving there. That's the challenge.

Old players drop by here all the time. Neil Mellor is someone who I have grown to know a bit better through the work that he is doing at LFC TV and he's a very interesting person. Hearing about his development, his time at the Academy and how he found his way through to Melwood has been particularly enlightening. Getting to know Neil has been something of real value to me.

And settling into the city has been the easy part. It's a fantastic place. My family have not been here with me but they'll come up in due course.

In terms of the city itself, it's lively and vibrant. The first thing that hits you, and what is different to London, is that here, you're either Red or Blue. You become very aware that two clubs dominate the city.

In London there are so many clubs sharing such a relatively short space. You can walk down a street and someone might be a QPR fan, an Arsenal fan, a Tottenham fan, a West Ham fan, a Barnet fan, or a Leighton Orient fan. You come to Liverpool and very quickly you become very, very aware of how the place is united and divided in equal measures.

As I've found out more about the history of the club, one thing that has fascinated me has been the number of players who have played for Liverpool who were once Evertonians - Jamie Carragher being the prime example.

You also hear how some Everton players were Liverpool fans when they were younger. And yet that's just accepted, which is wonderful. There's a very, very healthy competition in this city.