End of an era as Liverpool set to leave historic base

Jurgen Klopp is believed to be one of the driving forces behind this move.

When Klopp arrived at Liverpool in October 2015, he immediately had to set about improving the club's fortunes on the pitch. At that time, the Merseyside club were 1oth in the league table with eight league games played, form which ultimately led to the sacking of Brendan Rodgers. However, one of the projects which Klopp would have identified with regards to his long-term vision of the club would have been to amalgamate the club's training bases. The current situation is that the senior team train at the club's Melwood base and the underage teams operate out of the academy in Kirkby, approximately six kilometres apart. According to a report in the Liverpool Echo, the club are set to develop the club's academy base in Kirkby into a state-of-the-art training centre for both the academy and first-team. It can definitely be considered the end of an era, the first-team have been operating out of Melwood since the 1950's. Liverpool intend to purchase 14 acres of land (orange site in map above) adjacent to the club's academy to accommodate the proposed works. It is hoped that a planning application will be submitted in the coming weeks with the hope that construction will begin in early 2018. This means that the likely move for the club's first-team will take place at the beginning of the 2019/2020 season. The new facilities will include a new covered artificial pitch, gymnasium, sports rehabilitation suites, a pool and a hydrotherapy complex. The existing academy buildings at Kirkby will be refurbished with the first-team training centre built nearby. According to the report, it was considered to expand Melwood but the plan wasn't feasible due to the lack of space.