FeatureBehind the Badge: Why coaching Liverpool U21s is the perfect role for Rob Page

Twelve months had passed since his successful tenure as head coach of the senior Wales national team had come to an end and Page was ready for the next chapter in his career.

The source of the new challenge that excited him most was entirely unexpected: a long-lost former teammate with whom he’d had no contact for decades.

But when he reconnected with Alex Inglethorpe, Page realised quickly that Liverpool was the place he wanted to be.

So, in June of this year, he was appointed head coach of the Reds’ U21s and, a few months down the line, he is loving being part of a club he has always admired.

“We played for Watford together many years ago, in the 1990s,” Page tells Liverpoolfc.com of his long-standing acquaintance with Academy director Inglethorpe.

“We didn’t keep in touch but I’ve always monitored his career and I know other people involved in development football who’d had dealings with Al, so his name came up in conversation now and again. But when I found out about the position here, that was the first contact we’d had in a long while.

“I was doing the rounds at clubs, going to watch teams train and looking at facilities and finding out how other teams and managers work, and it was after a conversation with Al when I thought going back into development football was the right decision for me.

“Developing as a coach, having an exciting opportunity to go back into development and help young players was something I didn’t think of straight away after leaving Wales but the longer it went on, I thought how much I had enjoyed my time with Wales U21s.

“I was asked to step up to be on the senior staff so I took the opportunity to work with first-team players at international level. Then I was asked to step up again to be manager and I was never going to say no to it, but I was still developing as a coach.

“We had a successful four years with qualifying for a Euros and a World Cup, but I still want to develop as a coach.

“I had opportunities to go back into domestic football as a manager and assistant manager and I thought, ‘I’d rather a project than just to go back to being on the treadmill, where you have a few defeats and you’re under pressure again.’

“So, to be asked to take an opportunity like this, it was a no-brainer to come in and work with some good young players at a magnificent football club.”

A former international centre-back who earned 41 caps for Wales, Page’s only previous visit to Anfield was back in August 1999 when he captained Watford to a 1-0 win in the Premier League.

The 51-year-old continues: “I think from the outside you see how good the football club is and how it looks. Having been inside now for a couple of months, it’s another level completely.

“The staff are great, the people are great. They have had difficult moments to deal with since I have been here but again, how the club has pulled together – history has shown that they’ve had some difficult moments over the years and you can see why it’s such a special club because they absolutely do pull together.

“It’s been easy for me to settle in and I’m loving every minute of it.”

As an ex-player who made just shy of 500 career appearances in club football before managing Port Vale, Northampton Town, Wales U21s and his country’s senior team, Page has a wealth of experience with which to guide youngsters who are at the start of their own professional journeys.

“Our facilities are incredible [as is] what we offer the players,” Page, who also coaches the Reds’ U19s in the UEFA Youth League, says.

“What I want to bring is a little bit of realism. I’ve been an international manager, I’ve been a club manager, and I know what’s needed to develop a young player into getting a career out of the game.

“I think it’s that part of it. They are here because they are talented footballers, there’s no question about that, but it’s the other things I want to give them that make them a rounded person and player to go and get a career in the game, whether it’s here at Liverpool or elsewhere.”

Page’s coaching career began almost immediately after his time as a player concluded at the back end of the 2010-11 season.

He recalls: “I didn’t know then whether I wanted to be a coach or a manager but I knew I wanted to be involved in football.

“And again, opportunities fell in my lap. I was at Chesterfield and retired from playing at 35. Then, that summer, Micky Adams took me into Port Vale as youth-team coach, which was the perfect transition for me.

“Within six months or so, he asked me to work with the first team on a Saturday so I was learning my trade with the youth players through the week but then with the first team too, learning about that environment.

“I enjoyed there being something on the result on a Saturday – the nerves and excitement and pressure – and then the following season Micky left quite early on and the chairman asked me to take over short term, which I did. We kept the team up and then the following season I got the manager’s job permanently.

“So, it completely fell into my lap – I didn’t know going into it that I wanted to be a manager but I really enjoyed it.”

Page also managed Northampton and spent time as a first-team coach at Nottingham Forest before becoming Wales U21s head coach in March 2017.

Three-and-a-half years later, he took the senior role – initially on an interim basis – and would lead Wales to qualification, and eventually the Round of 16, of Euro 2020 and then to their first appearance at the finals of a World Cup since 1958.

“It was incredible and like I said earlier, when you’re asked to take charge, you’re never going to turn it down. Whether it was a bit too soon for me at the time, who knows, but sometimes you don’t know until you take the plunge,” Page says.

“We developed some good players with the U21s and I think there was about 15 players that we brought through to the senior team.

“We were in a transition at the time. We had some exceptional players like Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey but they were coming to the end of their careers so we looked to players like Daniel James, Brennan Johnson and Harry Wilson, who you guys will know from his Liverpool days.

“It took a couple of years to get from the senior group to that next generation and I think what helped us was that we had the Nations League games. They enabled us to expose the younger players to a high level of opposition and we knew that would make them better in the long run.

“Don’t get me wrong, in the qualifiers you want to play your best XI and win. But when we got promoted in the Nations League from B to A, we were up against top sides and while we want to win every game, is that realistic?

“The chances are we might have to suffer without the ball quite a bit so we thought, ‘Let’s expose some of the best young players to it.’ That’s what we did with Neco [Williams], Ethan Ampadu, Brennan Johnson, Daniel James, Joe Rodon.

“We played those lads and knew they would inevitably become better having gone through those experiences. I always wanted to leave Wales in a better position than when I joined. That was my aim so I always had one eye on the future.”

Page was, then, thinking developmentally even in the results-driven business of senior international football.

Now, preparing players for the future – and hopefully a career in Liverpool’s senior team – is the very essence of his job.

Day-to-day, the U21s emulate Arne Slot’s seniors in terms of their training schedule, while Page leads sessions designed to reflect the Premier League champions’ playing style.

“You’re one step away from joining the first team so we’ve got to mirror what the gaffer does. It’s about giving our players the tools so that when they do step up, when they are called on, it’s not a big shock, a big culture shock, for them,” he notes.

“The manager has been brilliant with us. Maybe once a week we’ll go over and train with them and it’s great for the players. It’s great for us coaches because we get to go over and watch the first-team coaches and manager, but for the players to join in, it gives them a lift straight away.

“You can see the energy increase by 50 per cent straight away because they are training with the first-team players and it’s an incredible experience for them. We really enjoy the time that we spend with them and they couldn’t be more accommodating to us.

“They’ve been brilliant. When our players go over, the first-team players make them feel comfortable and have conversations with them. For Rio [Ngumoha], for example, to go over and settle in like he has says a lot about the senior players over there in terms of helping the younger ones.

“We share the same building and there is a close relationship between both groups.”

Indeed, seeing young players earn their opportunity to work with Slot’s elite, established internationals is the aspect of Page’s role that gratifies him most.

“When the boys go over to join the first team, that’s definitely the most satisfying bit for me,” he concludes.

“For example, Dannsy [Jayden Danns], he’s a model professional – as are Rio and Trey [Nyoni] – and I was at Anfield for the Atletico Madrid game and watched him warming up. You could see how excited he was and that is brilliant to see.

“I’m not taking any credit for Dannsy’s development, by the way, but for the coaches before me who have helped him, they will get a lot of satisfaction from that.

“I had something similar with David Brooks. I watched him develop in my Wales U21s team then worked with him with the senior team.

“That is so rewarding and is what the job is all about.”

• Keep an eye on Liverpoolfc.com for more from the new series of Behind the Badge.