Top News

Curtis Jones’s exit represents a major blow to Liverpool’s local identity.

Liverpool’s marketing team once came up with a slogan that sharply divided opinion among supporters.

Depending on where fans stood, ‘This Means More’ was seen either as an Anglicised version of Barcelona’s ‘Mes Que Un Club’ — ‘more than a club’ — philosophy, or as a cheap tagline designed to draw in customers looking for a sense of belonging. But for Jurgen Klopp, there truly was something that meant more during his spell at Anfield.

With his already stretched squad hanging on desperately against Chelsea’s financial powerhouse in the 2024 Carabao Cup final, the German took a bold gamble. He packed Liverpool’s side with players developed almost entirely through the club’s system at the AXA Training Centre.

Jarell Quansah, Jayden Danns, James McConnell, Trey Nyoni and Bobby Clark spearheaded a display that ended with Virgil van Dijk’s extra-time winner. Klopp called it ‘easily the most special trophy I ever won’, which is saying plenty given he had already lifted the Champions League during an outstanding managerial career. Alan Hansen’s famous line that ‘you can’t win anything with kids’ was overturned by his former club, as a youthful side stood up to a team Gary Neville labelled ‘blue billion-pound bottle jobs’ and briefly suggested the tide might yet be held back, even if only a little. Two years on from that Wembley success, however, the club’s homegrown foundation now faces a very real threat to its existence.

Klopp had previously spoken about his dream that the Reds could, perhaps within the next decade, field ‘a team full of Scousers’ because they would ‘fight like crazy’. Ironically, the player central to that remark in July 2020 has now dealt a heavy blow to that ideal. Curtis Jones’s move to Inter Milan appears set to bring an era to a close for the club’s local core. In each of the last 33 seasons, at least one homegrown player has made a Premier League appearance for the club they grew up supporting. That tradition stretches all the way back through Liverpool’s 134-year history, with Philip Kelly the first in a long line of players celebrated by Kopites as ‘a Scouser in our team’. The Toxteth-born midfielder’s switch to Serie A, one year before his contract was due to end, threatens to break that chain. Just over 12 months after Trent Alexander-Arnold left the club that helped turn him into one of the finest full-backs in world football, Liverpool’s hierarchy were keen to avoid a repeat. The fee Inter paid — around £30m — is minor compared with what the club stand to lose by Jones seeking regular football away from his roots.

Liverpool’s academy has for a long time been a source of pride and fascination. Under Steve Heighway, the celebrated winger from the club’s dominant 1970s era, a number of Scousers came through the system and became household names. From Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler to Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard, local boys regularly made their mark on Merseyside at a time when only Manchester United’s Class of 92 produced more among established Premier League clubs. As rising ticket prices increasingly pushed local match-going supporters towards the margins at Anfield, those players remained the last genuine connection between the stands and the team on the pitch.

They also served as an important cultural guide for new arrivals trying to understand the unique environment that still surrounds the club.

For a period, though, that pathway dried up. Four Liverpool teams have won the FA Youth Cup, but the jump from youth football to the first team proved difficult for those who came after Carragher. Gerrard’s emergence in the immediate aftermath of the 1996 triumph over a West Ham side featuring future stars Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand turned out to be the last time a youth product established himself as a regular in the senior team. Those capable of taking the next step were also caught in the middle of a fierce struggle between the Kirkby centre of excellence and the Anfield management setup, as Gerard Houllier and Rafael Benitez both sought control over youth policy. Efforts to correct the issue by bringing in former Barcelona youth coaches Rodolfo Borrell and Pep Segura — both of whom played important roles in Lionel Messi’s development — did little to undo the damage that had already taken hold. The local players who did manage semi-regular appearances during that spell were ultimately overshadowed by a talent pool drawn from well beyond the Mersey area, most notably Raheem Sterling.

Throughout that period, Carragher and Gerrard remained the standard-bearers, while Jon Flanagan briefly carried the local flag after Gerrard’s exit until Alexander-Arnold — the true ‘Scouse Cafu’ — emerged in Klopp’s first full season as the latest local symbol of the club. Three years later, Jones followed him, having benefited from the former captain’s guidance during Gerrard’s short stint as Liverpool’s under-18 manager.

Both players became Liverpool’s first locally born footballers since Gerrard to make more than 200 appearances, and both openly spoke of wanting to go further by one day fully claiming the captain’s armband. Unless there is an unexpected return — something made more difficult in Alexander-Arnold’s case after last summer’s tense departure — neither will achieve that ambition.

Strong personal ambition drove both players to move abroad, but they are not the only ones from the old Kirkby group to have felt restricted. Although Merseyside-born rather than Liverpool-born, Quansah and Tyler Morton also sought moves overseas to Bayer Leverkusen and Lyon, and both decisions have already paid off after limited first-team opportunities at Anfield. Quansah’s debut Bundesliga campaign earned the Warrington-born defender a place in England’s World Cup squad this summer, while Morton, a holding midfielder, has flourished with greater freedom in Ligue 1. A similar situation applied to Caoimhin Kelleher, who is not local but made what was described as the ‘easy’ choice to join Brentford after his path to succeeding Alisson as first-choice goalkeeper was inexplicably blocked by Giorgi Mamardashvili. Supporters have continued to follow the progress of all three from a distance, with a sense of regret, hoping the club’s decision-makers may one day recognise the mistake in allowing them to leave.

As for Jones’s immediate successors in the local contingent, they are notably absent. Danns is now the only remaining one in Andoni Iraola’s current squad, but he has struggled with injury over the last 12 months. The striker only made his long-awaited comeback in last week’s fiery ‘mini derby’ against Everton Under-21s at Goodison Park.

At a time when youth development is central to the plans of many Premier League rivals, Liverpool risk being left behind.

A sustained run in the side looks increasingly unlikely with record signing Alexander Isak spearheading the attack, Hugo Ekitike nearing a return, and further attacking additions — including PSG’s Bradley Barcola — expected to be pursued before the transfer window shuts. Iraola understands the value of local identity better than most after spending nearly all of his playing career at Athletic Club, whose famous ‘cantera’ policy is built around players of Basque birth or origin. He was clear about wanting to keep Jones at all costs and used his opening address to stress the importance of a local core. But if the Basque manager makes a difficult start, as he did at Bournemouth, then Danns’s chances of forcing his way into first-team contention will shrink even further.

At a time when youth development is front and centre for many of their Premier League rivals, Liverpool are in danger of falling away. Reigning champions Arsenal continue to prosper with Hale End graduates Bukayo Saka and Myles Lewis-Skelly, while Manchester City have made Phil Foden and Nico O’Reilly central figures in their bold new era under Enzo Maresca. Even Chelsea, the previously mentioned billionaire bottlers, can point to Reece James and Levi Colwill from their Cobham production line. Manchester United, too, still proudly maintain a record of naming a homegrown player in every matchday squad since 1937.

Klopp later softened his vision of a truly local side by saying that, in the meantime, he would accept Liverpool becoming a club where everyone with ‘a Scouse soul’ wanted to play. That may now be all Liverpool have left to hold on to, with no genuine successor immediately ready to take over the role vacated by Jones’s move to Italy. A banner displayed at Anfield on the final day of last season in tribute to departing stalwarts Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah asked, ‘When will we see your like again’. The same question can now be asked about the next Scouser to pull on Liverpool’s famous red shirt.

Liverpool lost their Scouse identity years ago. Going to the match used to be great fun. There was plenty of humour from local lads. Now it feels sterile and dull. Success brought many more fans, but the price has been that Liverpool no longer feels like Liverpool.

Jones is not a good representation of Scousers. He shows no passion and struts around the pitch as though he is Zlatan.