Having spent 17 years of his career at Melwood, Steven Gerrard is now looking to return to Liverpool’s former training ground — to set up a base for his football academy.
Gerrard, who has just led Rangers to the title in Scotland, will submit a proposal next week to the housing provider Torus, to move into part of the site they acquired from Liverpool last year after the club moved to a new training base in nearby Kirkby in November.
The Steven Gerrard Academy wants to lease, or buy outright, the training facility that was used by Jürgen Klopp’s squad, including an indoor five-a-side pitch.
The academy was established in 2011 and rebranded under Gerrard’s name 18-months ago after joining forces with LLS, an education provider based in the UK and Qatar. It offers courses for 16 to 19-year-olds which combines securing A-Level equivalent educational qualifications with top-level football coaching.
The facilities would also double aa a community hub for the West Derby area.
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Torus has already announced plans to build about 200 houses on the 12-acre site, which had been Liverpool’s training base since the 1950s, and have entered into a second round of consultation with local residents.
Gerrard’s academy partnered with Ian Rush, the former Liverpool striker, last month and also has former Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick as a member of its steering group.
A return to Melwood would represent an emotional step for Gerrard, whose academy already runs sites from within the city as well as London, Chester, Alicante, Tenerife and Northern Ireland.
Gerrard, 40, was promoted by the former Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier as a teenager to Melwood and spent almost two decades at the base, where he honed his skills to lead the club to success. He made 710 appearances, scoring 186 goals.
He took over as Rangers manager in the summer of 2018 and, in his first senior managerial role, has just guided the club to their 55th Scottish title ahead of rivals Celtic.
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Liverpool left Melwood after deeming it to be too small and moved to their new state-of-the-art, £50 million training ground.
