‘Liverpool is going in the right direction’ – Cook

Clive Cook, one of the coaches with the Liverpool Football Club Academy, believes that the club is on the right track.{{more}}

Cook, who was here last week with the Academy’s Under-18 team , made this known to SEARCHLIGHT last Saturday at the Buccament Bay Resort, soon after conducting a coaching session with youngsters from four schools in the South Leeward area.

“The first team is going in the right direction, there is a new manager, there is a new owner, there is a good feel factor about the club and we are hopeful that in the next season, we will be much improved, so that we will be challenging for the Premier Divsion title,” Cook, the current Education and Welfare Tutor Supervisor for the Liverpool club, said passionately.

Liverpool’s first team finished sixth in 2010-2011 competition in the twenty team Barclays Premier League table, the top flight of England’s Football, thus missing out on a Champions League place for next season.

But like many others, Cook has a great deal of adimration and belief for Kenny Dalglish, who took over as the first team’s Football Manager last January from Roy Hodgson.

Dalglish signed a three year deal with the club earlier this month.

“Dalglish is an incredible guy, and he has been very successful. He is probably the best player that has ever to have played for Liverpool,” Cook opined of Kenny Dalglish.

“ He( Dalglish) earns respect just by walking into the dressing room. You can just tell that everyone looks up to him and listens to his advice, and everyone is looking forward to the fortunes of Kenny,” Cook, who posesses a Bachelor’s degree in Sports Science and Psychology and a Master’s in Sports Psychology, stated.

Cook said that with Dalglish formerly with the Liverpool Academy, there is a plus for the overall feeding of the first team.

“If he (Dalglish) needs a left back, he does not go the academy and says he wants a left back, he knows exactly who he wants as he knows the players by name, from Under-6 through to Under-18”, said Cook.

Cook said that there is a great buzz around the city of Liverpool, as everyone is excited with the prospects of the club, which has been around since 1892.

The famed Liverpool club is the second most successful club in the history of English Football, having won 18 league titles, seven FA Cups, and a record seven league cups. Liverpool is the most successful English club in European competition, having won five European cups the last in 2005, and three UEFA Cups.

Reflecting on the trip here, in which the Liverpool Academy Under-18 team beat a St. Vincent and the Grenadines Under-20, 4-1, Cook said: “It was a fantastic experience for all the players and all the staff, it is a great relationship we have developed with the team here in St. Vincent (and the Grenadines) and we have been really impressed with the quality of the players here, and the standard is very good”.

“We hope with the coaches will add to the players’ development with emphasis on the basic skills that they can take away and can practise on a daily basis and can improve,” Cook, who holds UEFA “A” and “ B” coaching licences, concluded.

Apart from the last Saturday’s event, and last week Thursday’s friendly international with the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Under -20, the Liverpool Academy Under-18 team and coaching staff conducted training sessions with four schools in Kingstown area, last Friday, at the Grammar School Playing Field.

They were guests of the Buccament Bay Resort.