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The centre of Anfield will become a giant building site for a couple of years as Liverpool FC's giant 21,000 seat stand takes shape.

Liverpool Chief Executive Ian Ayre acknowledged the disruption the huge £100m plus building project could cause - but pledged the club would do all it can to minimise problems and issues for fans, residents and businesses in the area.

Construction giants Carillion, who are building the new Royal Liverpool Hospital, have been awarded the contract to build the massive new structure and their teams will swing fully into action at Anfield on Monday morning.

The new stand, to effectively be built behind and then over the existing stand, will be open in time for the 2016/17 season. It has been designed by London-based architects KSS.

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It will see 8,500 new seats added, a sensitive relocation of the Hillsborough Memorial and also the Shankly Gates, new shops, ticket offices. lounges and around 36 new corporate boxes.

There will also be extra wheelchair access for disabled supporters too – a thorny issue for many years which it is envisaged the development will help solve. And a major concourse established.

Said Ayre: “We have the ability to get this thing started and get it built.

“That will be fantastic - but it will also come with its own challenges.

“We will have a huge building site and a huge construction project going on as we play every game through the remainder of this season and the season beyond.

“That’s going to make it difficult for people and challenging for people on match days."

Ayre said construction will go on behind the existing Main Stand in the first phase and then the roof of the existing stand will be removed.

“Cantilevers that come over the top will essentially house the tiers that will sit above”, he said.

“So the existing Paddock and Main Stand will become one tier which will be the lower tier of the new stand.

“And the innards if you like, the under croft of the existing stand will all be refurbished. But the major construction will go on behind the existing facility. So we are basically building over the top almost."

He added: “We had to find a solution that didn’t significantly damage our existing capacity – even during the build phase.

“Because all that would have done is not allow people in while we were building but secondly would have had a huge financial implication.

“So it is quite an ingenious design."

He continued: “We know we’ll get the continued support of our fans, the local community, of everyone. And we hope everyone can be involved in the excitement of opening this new facility in the summer of the 2016/17 season.

“It’s a massive step forward and I must thank everybody for their support and commitment to us but also ask them to continue please to be patient as we go through this process.

“It’s always been vital that we had this solution.

“if we are going to compete at the highest level in football, we’ve always said media revenues are a big chunk of competing at the highest level.

“But growing in all areas of our business is so important to the club and to be able to do that at the spiritual home of Liverpool FC is a fantastic step forward for us.

Liverpool say they could not have reached today’s landmark moment without the team approach brought about by the partnership with Liverpool City Council and the Your Housing Group as part of a wider regeneration project.

Said Ayre: “We all know how long the club has been trying to solve this issue .

“So I’d like to thank all the people who have been our partners in this because it is testament to Joe Anderson, the people at the City Council and also the people at Your Housing, for helping us achieve this.

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“I remember some years back when I joined the club Rick (Parry) telling me there wasn’t a solution whereby we could stay at Anfield - and that’s why all roads pointed to a new stadium.

“And so I think the collaboration in making this about the regeneration of Anfield – the area rather than the football ground – was what really pushed this along both in terms of speed and success.

“So I’m thanking them for all their support because it genuinely has been a collaborative effort that has helped us to achieve this goal.”

Ayre also paid tribute to Reds owners’ Fenway Sports Group, principle owner John Henry and club chairman Tom Werner, for making it happen.

He added: “I remember John’s first time he ever came to Anfield.

“He said ‘Why would we ever want to leave here?’

“It’s always been the desire of the owners and everyone here to stay at Anfield.

“And so two years ago we got to a point where we believed there was a genuine opportunity to improve Anfield rather than build something new. It’s taken those two years to achieve it.

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“I think we’ve made more progress in that period than we’ve made in the last ten.

“It is easy to look back and look at the false dawns but once we started to look very closely and once the new owners came in four years ago we spent a bit of time considering all the options.

“The journey’s been a difficult one and not without its twists and turns. But in a relatively short time we’ve achieved an enormous amount.

“So today is huge of course for Liverpool Football Club. But I wouldn’t say it is a restart for the club.

“If anything, I think that came four years ago when we changed our ownership.

“These owners and this management team at the club have worked to get the club back where it belongs.

“Back where it belongs can sometimes be perceived as backwards to what we used to be. But football moves at such a pace these days that being at the top of the game means a bigger stadium with better facilities.

“That’s the world of football, it’s the world of sport and it’s the world of entertainment.

“So it is very much the end of one road and the beginning of another.

“And I would hope that what it shows our supporters is the commitment and the style of this ownership group and management team.

“Often people feel they have to go at a certain pace to achieve things and what we have learned from working with everyone from FSG and John and Tom and others is that we’ll do it at the right pace, one that is right for the club – and which has the right outcome for everyone."

Ayre: We'll be good neighbours

Said Ayre: “People In the area can absolutely expect that we will carry on trying to be a good neighbour and working with them long into the future now.

“Some time ago when we announced the initial partnership with the City Council and Your Housing Group, I personally made a key point of apologising to local residents for the issues that had been caused; some of which were down to the football club and some of which were not.

“But since that day we have certainly made every effort we can to engage with the local community and we will keep them informed and engage with them.

“That has to continue.

“We’ll be one of the biggest employers, if not the biggest employer certainly in that area. And we have a genuine responsibility to be a good neighbour. Myself and my team are absolutely focused on that.

“There’ll be lots of challenges and lots of difficult days between now and this stand opening. And also beyond that.

“There are always going to be difficult days when you bring in 50,000 plus people to a residential area. It’s our responsibility to ensure that we keep an open dialogue with the residents.

“We must understand what their issues are and ensure we operate our business in a way that comforts them - and doesn’t give them too much pain.

“It’s not easy because as we say, we are bringing an awful lot of people to a place where they live.

“But we have to respect that and I can assure the local residents that that will be the case."

He added: “Despite some of the negativity that’s existed around this because of the false dawns and undelivered solutions I think we probably expected a pretty negative response to anything we did.

“But actually, very quickly in this process, we got fantastic support, particularly from the local community.

“I remember attending some of the early focus groups with some people from the City Council and Your Housing and some local residents committees and even though, though there was of course scepticism and concerns, people were genuinely committed to finding the right solutions both for us and for the area.

“We can’t thank those people enough because they have lived through the whole project, through the whole ten and more years of issues and yet they still had a very positive approach to it.

“We absolutely recognise the ultimate outcome of what we build and develop is very important to the local community.