The year was 2022, and the setting was a gym at Liverpool‘s AXA Training Centre in Kirkby. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones — both of whom had risen through the club’s academy ranks to break into the first team under Jürgen Klopp — sat side by side as they filmed an episode of an in-house video series called “Bezzies.”
“I just remember him being cheeky, but not in a bad way,” Alexander-Arnold said when asked to recount his first impression of Jones. “He’s that kind of player. He tries things and has confidence in himself. He just expresses himself, and I always respected that.”
Alexander-Arnold’s assessment of his teammate could, perhaps, have been condensed into one word: “Scouse.”
Since making his first-team debut in 2019, Jones’ self-assured swagger has become his trademark, with his eye for a pass having first been forged playing street soccer in the Toxteth area of Liverpool. During a golden generation for the club under Klopp and later Arne Slot, both Jones and Alexander-Arnold helped to imbue a team of superstars with a Scouse heartbeat, furnishing supporters across Merseyside with local heroes to adore.
Liverpool’s desire to reflect the club’s regional ties no doubt led to the duo being platformed in the “Bezzies” video. Four years on, Jones’ €35 million transfer to Inter Milan — following Alexander-Arnold’s €10 million move to Real Madrid last summer — paints a picture of a team whose identity is in a state of flux.
In some respects, Jones’ departure seems like the best outcome for all parties. For the player — who had just one year remaining on his Liverpool contract — it is an opportunity to reignite his career at San Siro, while the club are able to bank pure profit for an academy graduate who was not guaranteed to feature every week under new head coach Andoni Iraola.
While Liverpool made every effort to keep Alexander-Arnold at Anfield amid interest from the Bernabéu last year, the same cannot be said in the case of Jones. The 25-year-old was not presented with the kind of bumper contract recently afforded to teammates Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai, which served to illustrate where he sat in the Reds’ midfield pecking order.
Sources told ESPN that Jones’ grievances over his place within the squad were longstanding, with his frustrations coming to a head in January of this year, when he was benched for Liverpool’s 0-0 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates. Before that, the midfielder had started six Premier League games in a row and it was amid that run that he stated his ambition to emulate Steven Gerrard by becoming a club legend.
“I want to be captain of the team,” Jones told Sky Sports in December. “I want to stay here for all my life like the man who I look up to, as everybody knows is Gerrard.
“If I could follow him, I mean that would be great. I would never complain. I would always have a smile on my face, especially because of who he is in the city and stuff, but then how he’s obviously seen in the footballing world.”
However, only a month later, interest from the Serie A champions turned Jones’ head, and while his exit wasn’t sanctioned in the January window, a move to Italy this summer had begun to feel increasingly inevitable — even if Iraola expressed his desire to prolong the player’s stay on Merseyside only last month.
“It’s very important that he’s Scouse, that he’s from here,” the Liverpool boss said. “I also like the personality. From the outside, at least, he looks like a player with good character, and I hope we can keep him, not only for this year but for more time.”
Iraola knows better than most the value of nurturing homegrown talent, having spent the majority of his playing career representing boyhood team Athletic Club, who operate a strict Basque-only recruitment policy.
“I see a lot of things [similar to Liverpool],” Iraola told reporters, including ESPN, during the club’s preseason tour of the United States. “This sense of belonging, of being a little bit different. This connection, also, with players from the academy.”
That connection, it seems, is now under threat.
Liverpool have never gone a full Premier League season without at least one player from the city making an appearance. With the exception of striker Jayden Danns — who has spent much of the past year sidelined with a succession of injury issues — there are no obvious candidates within Liverpool’s ranks ready to uphold that proud tradition.
Of course, Scouse heritage alone does not give a player the necessary credentials to represent the club every week. But it is hard to think of a great Liverpool team that hasn’t been able to call upon the services of a local player.
The Reds’ famous Champions League triumph in Istanbul in 2005 was thanks in no small part to the efforts of Gerrard and defender Jamie Carragher; Robbie Fowler’s heroics in the 2000-01 season helped Liverpool to a unique cup treble; while the club’s halcyon days of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s owed much to the talents of players such as Ian Callaghan, Phil Thompson and David Fairclough.
Premier League champions Arsenal have a prominent homegrown presence in Bukayo Saka and Myles Lewis-Skelly, while Manchester City — Liverpool’s greatest rivals over the past decade — have boyhood City fans Phil Foden and Nico O’Reilly as pivotal members of their squad.
While it is impossible to weigh the importance of such an intangible, there is a risk that the absence of local talent can lead to a disconnect between a club and its fanbase. That should be of particular concern to Liverpool, who have seen a number of long-serving players — including Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson — depart this summer.
When Jones signed an improved five-year deal in July 2020, Klopp pointed to the midfielder’s innate understanding of the club as one of his greatest assets.
“We want to be the club where everyone with a Scouse soul wants to play,” he said. “If you love football, if you are talented, if you are ready to work hard then we want you to be here but for that we need to show the boys that there is a way through.
“The dream in the long term is that we have a team full of Scousers. Why not? They would fight like crazy.”
For now, that dream feels further away than ever and while Jones may be gone, Liverpool must work to ensure their “Scouse soul” still remains.
