It was on the pitches of Liverpool’s academy some 20 years ago that an emerging prospect in Trent Alexander-Arnold crossed paths with John Doolan, a developing coach within the club’s youth set-up. The pair will meet again this weekend at Anfield.
Alexander-Arnold may not start the FA Cup third-round tie against Doolan’s Accrington Stanley with Arne Slot set to make wholesale changes to his lineup — and the vice-captain’s future at the club is currently the subject of intense speculation — but there will surely be a time to reminisce.
Doolan was a first-team coach at Accrington before stepping up into the No.1 role last March following the sacking of former long-term manager John Coleman, and prior to that he worked at the academies of Liverpool, Everton and Wigan Athletic.
It was during his time in Kirby that Doolan first spotted the talent of a six-year-old Alexander-Arnold, and while he accepts that the England full-back may have no recollection of him after almost two decades, the 50-year-old is optimistic of catching up with him and his mother, Diane.
“I looked after Trent when he was six and seven, which he probably won’t remember, but his mum, Diane, might, I spoke to her quite a lot,” Doolan said.
“He was a centre-forward and you could see the ability he had then, scoring with both feet, could just glide past people. You could see he was an outstanding talent, even back then.
“When I moved on with my career, I ended up going back at some point and he was playing at centre-back, which I was surprised at. But he didn’t look out of place playing centre-back.
“That’s why he’s now playing right-back and he’s developed unbelievably. He’s a world-class player.
“It would be nice if he does remember but it would be nice to see Diane and catch up with her as well.”
Despite the links between the two clubs and many of Accrington’s players coming from the Merseyside area, they have remarkably never competitively faced each other prior to Saturday’s game.
Unsurprisingly, Doolan confirmed that “everybody’s fit” for what could be the biggest occasion in their footballing careers but admitted that the League Two side’s preparations have not been straight forward due to the recent snowy weather.
Accrington have been unable to use their Wham Stadium for training and have instead been forced to practice at an indoor dome at nearby Blackburn earlier in the week.
“We’ve been indoor and using soccer domes, we’ve had spin and yoga classes, we’ve had the advice of our sports science person,” said Doolan.
“We know the size of the task, we could have the best facilities ever but you’re talking about playing Liverpool Football Club.
“But Liverpool might have an off-day and we might have an unbelievable day. We might have Lady Luck with us, you just never know. It’s the magic of the cup.”
'I want everyone to enjoy the occassion'
A glimmer of hope for Accrington, who are 19th in the fourth tier having recently ended a seven-game winless run with two victories, are that Slot’s Premier League leaders have erred slightly this past week.
Dropping points in the 2-2 draw at home to Manchester United was followed by a 1-0 loss in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final with Tottenham Hotspur and then their flight back from London being diverted to Birmingham. The late arrival back to Merseyside meant Thursday’s planned training was cancelled.
“I don’t see that many differences compared to many other games we’ve played,” Slot said of his team’s performances this week. “The only difference is that we’ve played these two games after winning 6-3 [in the league] at Tottenham and 5-0 at West Ham.
“So, after those two games, everybody thought we know they were good but they’re that good, we probably didn’t know. If you compare to those standards then I’d agree that they were of lower standards compared to those two.”
One Extra motivation for Doolan comes from him being a boyhood Everton fan. Although he wants what is best for Accrington, who are set to take around 4,700 fans to Anfield, he also said it would be nice to get one over Liverpool.
“The amount of times I’ve gone home on Saturday after a derby defeat,” Doolan said with a smile. “But it would be nice to get one over on them.
“I want everyone to enjoy the occasion. These are the things you have to remember when you go there — it might never, ever happen again for these players or for the club.
“You do have to go and enjoy it but we want to go there and give a good account of ourselves as a team. Ultimately we’re a professional club so we want to try and get ourselves in the next round of the hat.”
