At Liverpool’s training ground, Melwood, an eight-year-old autograph hunter waits at the gates. Others are pushing the nearby wheelie bins against the grey perimeter wall, jumping aboard to help catch a glimpse of the superstars beyond it. The eight–year-old hunts for a gap in the brickwork so he can take a peek.

Ten years on, that child has made it to the other side.

This is Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool’s latest academy graduate, reminiscing about his eight-year-old self as he makes the daily drive past a new generation of stargazers.

“I just used to try and look in the cars as they went past. I used to squint through the cracks in the wall and watch them train,” recalls the 18-year-old. “I had a lot of idols like Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Xabi Alonso – all of them. I really looked up to them.

“We live just by the Jolly Miller [pub], literally around the corner from the training ground, so it was an opportunity to see them. I’d never really seen them close up.”