LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, October 26, 2013: The Anfield Road stand in bright sunshine as Liverpool take on West Bromwich Albion during the Premiership match at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Liverpool confirm intentions for Anfield Road end expansion – plus update on new training ground

Liverpool have stressed they are “committed to finding the best possible answer” as they plan to move ahead with the Anfield Road end expansion.

Work on the Main Stand expansion was concluded in 2016, with a further 8,500 seats added to the stadium along with improvements made to the concourse and outside the ground.

Meanwhile, plans for a new training ground to include both first-team and academy facilities on the current Kirkby site were announced in 2017, as part of a £50 million renovation.

But there are still proposals under consideration to redevelop the Anfield Road end, and speaking at a Fans Forum on Saturday chief operating officer Andy Hughes confirmed the club’s intentions.

Hughes revealed that while the focus is currently on the training ground, with work set to begin in July, Liverpool are “completely committed” to another stadium expansion:

“Our priority right now is the training ground, the contract for which is currently out to tender, and ideally work will begin on that project in July.

“While this process is continuing, outline planning permission for Anfield Road is in place and does not expire until September 2019, which is later than had been reported in some quarters.

“It’s important to stress that we are applying the same level of rigour to this process as we did to the Main Stand process but Anfield Road is very much a live process and we will look to vary the outline planning permission that we have if necessary.

“From our point of view, there is no shortage of time or effort that is being put into this project to make it as good as it possibly can be. The programme is on track and we are completely committed to this project.

“We definitely can raise the money and we are committed to finding the best possible answer, assuming it is viable from all points of view.”

The new training ground is designed to improve the relationship between the first team and the academy, improving the pathway for young players into the senior squad.

Pepijn Lijnders‘ previous role with the club included overseeing a Talent Group at Melwood, with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Woodburn and Rhian Brewster all alumni.

But the differences between training in first-team facilities once a week and sharing the same training ground as the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino are vast.

Meanwhile, the club are believed to be finalising plans for the Anfield Road end expansion as they consider three designs, though as Hughes stresses they have outline planning permission until late 2019.

The expansion would add 7,000 extra seats to the stadium, bringing its capacity to around 61,000.

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