Column: How we help boys from abroad

Phil, who is also head of education and welfare, is tasked with overseeing the welfare of the Academy's 198 young players - from the elite development squad, U18s and U9-U16 schoolboy programme.

In his latest piece for Liverpoolfc.com, he explains the work he carries out to help players from foreign countries settle into life on Merseyside...

On Thursday, we held a special event at the Academy which saw players from non-English speaking countries teach some of our younger boys football-specific language in their native tongue.

We had Pedro Chirivella and Rafael Paez work with the young lads to teach them terminology in Spanish. 
  
It was a great way of allowing the younger lads adapt to being around the U18s and U21s players, but it also developed the communication skills of all concerned.

After the classroom work, they took what they had learned into a session out on the coaching field.

As head of education and welfare, a large part of my role is helping the boys who move here from countries around the world settle into life on Merseyside.

There is, of course, no unique formula for how we help them do so, because every player is different and should be treated that way. Some will settle into the Liverpool way of life a lot quicker than others.

But what we do provide is great support and that will be offered by the staff on the field and off it as well. If a player comes from a different country and English is his second language, the first thing we do is have our languages tutor, Alan Redmond, work hard with them from a very early stage.

Alan will help them develop not just the basic language skills they need to get by in their everyday lives, but he'll also teach them certain terminology which will help them get by on the field.

Clive Cook and I will then work hard to help the lads settle into the area. If the player is to live with house parents, then we'll make sure that all is in place for them. If he's old enough to live by himself in an apartment, we'll assist in finding a suitable place in an appropriate area.

We'll assist them with the managing of their finances and other important aspects of their lives off the field. But this process also involves a greater team of people than just Clive and I, who work together to make sure it's a smooth transition.

The players will then feed back to ourselves and the coaching staff to let us know how they are settling in.

As I said before, some will adapt more easily than others. For example, the players who we have signed from Hungary, like Krisztian Adorjan and Kristof Polgar, have come from MTK, a club who have a set-up which helps this.

Over at MTK, the boys are living away from home in dormitories, and then playing football in the day and having their education all on one site. So for them, living away from home and taking care of themselves is something they've done from a very young age.

Then there's Marc Pelosi, who went to Bradington in Florida, the US national school for soccer. Marc lived away from home for several seasons, so when he came to Liverpool, it wasn't too much of a problem to be away from his parents and to be in a different environment.

It's been a busy week at the Academy. On Tuesday, we had the unveiling of a new 3G AstroTurf pitch at Rainhill High School.

It is a triple venture between the school and the local community, the Liverpool FC Foundation and the Academy. The three have come together to use Rainhill as a hub for community work to be carried out in the local area.

The new facilities will benefit the local community and the students who attend the school, but it will also benefit the outreach work carried out by the Liverpool FC Foundation as well as Academy players' usage during the week.

We've had a partnership with the school now for more than four years. We've had debuts from Raheem Sterling, Jerome Sinclair and Jordon Ibe, who all studied or continue to study there.

We have players ranging from U12 right the way through to U16 - and all the education with our scholars and our U21 players is carried out there. So it's a massive part of our off-the-field education.

It's all come as a result of the hard work put in by Mr Pout, the headteacher, the work of the football foundation, the Premier League football initiative. Also, there's Jonathan Bamber and Joanne Roberts, from the club's legal team, who we were able to work with on getting this AstroTurf put together.

It was also fantastic that the manager, Brendan Rodgers, came down as well as Frank McParland and other staff members from the Academy to support the opening of the turf.

For the manager to be down there was a great chance for him to get an insight into the programme that was run there, but also the work that we're looking to continue to do.

The manager understands the importance of youth. He's said before that it's his background - developing young players. And so I think he understands the work we're trying to do, not only at the Academy but also with the players who are enrolled at the school.

For him to take the time out of his day to come down and open the facility, and to speak to some of our players while they were doing their day-to-day school work in the classroom, was fantastic for both the youngsters and the school staff.

It shows them that they are valued in all that they do off the field and that they are vital cogs in what we're trying to achieve at Liverpool.

In previous seasons the school has also been supported by Kenny Dalglish, who opened the classroom facilities that we have at the school three years ago when he was manager.

So we've been very lucky that it's had great support from the managers at the club and that they understand the importance of the work that goes on at the school.

I'd also like to give a special mention to the people who helped set up and who run the Liverpool FC Foundation College, particularly Dave Rowe and David MacDiarmid. They featured in a small piece on 'Match of the Day' last weekend.

It's important to emphasise the great work that is being done by them at the college. The 'Match of the Day' video, which also featured Glen Johnson, was all about how we help players after they are released from the club.

At Liverpool we try desperately to find players another club.

If there's a situation where a player is unable to achieve that, this is a programme where they are able to not only carry on their education in the college environment, but also play for the college football team.

They also work with coaches who are still within the Academy set-up. It's been proven to be a stepping stone to help students return to the professional game or achieve a scholarship in America.

We give everything to these players from the age of eight all the way through to 16, so it doesn't make any sense that you cut ties with them when they need our help.

This programme enables us, as a club, to monitor their football development, but also still monitor their academic development.

Essentially we're still able to care for the player and it was a short documentary to show the great work that is being done by all the guys at the Liverpool FC Foundation College.