While Kenny Dalglish, Jamie Carragher, Charlie Adam and the rest of the Liverpool players have quite rightly grabbed the headlines since touching down in China, the work of four less recognisable faces from Liverpool may have gone unnoticed.

Until today, that is. For the first time ever, Liverpool FC have brought Community coaches on a pre-season tour to ensure that it's not just on the pitch we make an impression in Asia but also off it. With the players time spent between training, playing and making public appearances, Mark Chester, Mark Bygroves, Anthony Wright and Eddie Sullivan have all been quietly going about their business touring local hospitals, schools and sports complexes coaching children and adult of all abilities.

It may not make the back pages of the Chinese newspapers but, as Ian Ayre admitted before leaving Liverpool on Sunday, this community initiative is not only absolutely central to the Club's core values but it's also an integral part of our visit to Asia. Today, while Jamie Carragher was singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' on stage at an adidas event in a nearby hotel and Charlie Adam was appearing before a thousand fans for a Standard Chartered-organised fan festival in a local shopping mall, Liverpoolfc.tv decided to spend a whole day shadowing the 'team behind the team'.

Tuesday 09:00: Depart Chateau Star River Hotel, destination Guangzhou Disability Sports Training Centre, approximately 40 minutes away. Two people carriers provide the transport for the four community coaches, three Club media staff, 20 special visual impairment footballs, 40 adidas Tango balls, three boxes of old kit (everyone they meet today will be given a Liverpool shirt worn by the players last season) and our guide from the British Council here in Guangzhou. First stop is a newly-built and rather impressive looking £15m sports complex solely dedicated to training some of China's best disabled sportsmen and women. The Club's community coaches are here to offer an hour-long session coaching the centre's own staff in how best to introduce and encourage football participation amongst disabled men, women and children. However, upon arrival at the centre, it soon becomes clear that the planned session - designed for able-bodied coaches - will have to be revised. It turns out, unbeknown to the Community staff, 17 of the 30 participants present, are in wheelchairs.

"We weren't expecting that," explains the Club's Disability Football Development Officer Mark Bygroves as we make our way down to a state-of-the-art basketball and indoor sports arena following a 30-minute presentation on the community initiatives Liverpool undertake on a daily basis back home on Merseyside, "but it's fine, we'll change the session and tailor it accordingly. I've just met one guy who represented China at basketball at the Paralympics in Beijing three years ago. Wheelchair basketball is absolutely massive - especially in China - and for him to make it into the five-person national team means he'll be the equivalent of a Steven Gerrard for his sport."

The quickly-revised session that follows proves not just educational for the coaches and their students in wheelchairs but also a lot of fun. Blindfolds are duly dispatched and suddenly, 30 people more accustomed to playing basketball, are learning about the difficulties of playing football without their vision. The VI balls, brought along especially for the event, rattle when moved and help guide the 'blind' participant towards the action.

"This has been amazing," Zhang Hong, the Director of Guangzhou Administration Centre for Paralympic Sports, enthuses with the help of a translator once the session has been wound up, pennants have been exchanged and everyone present is handed a red Liverpool shirt. I can't thank you enough for coming here and giving up your time to share this experience with us."

For Bygroves, the session has been a success - albeit a slightly different one than what he arrived expecting to deliver. "It's OK; we always have to be flexible in this job. No session can ever be set in stone and you adapt to what you find when you arrive. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and find it interesting. I'm not sure any of them had played football before in a wheelchair but it's a growing sport and if we've encouraged just one person here today to give it another go when we've left, then I'd consider that a success. I think we may have also created a few new Liverpool fans in the process which is no bad thing either."

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11:20: Next stop, it's a half-hour drive to Longjiang Middle School, a place that caters exclusively for the children of migrant workers living in the surrounding areas. Housed miles away from the business epicentre and skyscrapers of central Guangzhou, it's immediately clear that the children cheering at the school gate as we arrive do not see world famous football clubs turning up on their doorsteps very often. They simply can't contain their excitement when the coaches make their way into their playground and even a sudden downpour of torrential rain doesn't dampen their enthusiasm - although, as Eddie Sullivan, who is leading the coaching session here for the 50 or so kids on summer camp at the school, soon finds out - this isn't going to be the most disciplined of sessions.

"They've never had anything like this before," he says, as the kids (and their footballs) fly off in every direction imaginable. "You could see it as soon as we got the balls out of the car. I don't expect they've ever had proper football coaching before. Obviously the language barrier doesn't help - and the translators are doing the best they can - but they enjoyed themselves and no one wanted to go inside even when it was really raining, so that means we certainly got their attention. For us today, we just want them to join in and have some fun - something they're all doing - girls and boys. This isn't about trying to find the next Steven Gerrard; it's about trying to bring something to their lives and seeing the look on their faces as we gave them all a Liverpool shirt was amazing. Their parents clearly don't have much money and they're not getting the same opportunities as a lot of other kids in normal state school so that's why it's important that we show them that the world doesn't just know they exist but actually cares about them too. In fact, I found just being around them a very humbling experience."

One person who clearly does care about these children is Ray Xiao from the Department of Public Affairs here in Guangzhou. He works at this school amongst others and admits that the kids here are underprivileged. "They're the children of migrant workers so they don't have as many opportunities as lots of other children who attend normal schools. We try and teach them new things - possibly things they don't learn at home - like art and politics and how to have a debate. It's all about building up their self-esteem and preparing them for the challenges that will lie ahead for them.

"You can't even begin to comprehend how much this means to them today to see Liverpool Football Club in their playground at their school. As soon as they were told that this world famous English football club was coming to see them, they were in state of disbelief. They just couldn't wait until you turned up today so they could meet you all. Being this close to a club like Liverpool in China is beyond even their greatest dreams."


13:15: We're on the move again - this time to a school in a clearly more affluent area of the city. However, the children we're about to meet are clearly worse off - physically at least - than the ones we've just said goodbye to. Upon arrival at the Affiliated High School of Southern China Normal University in the Panyu district, we're met by a team of deaf footballers. Not one of them can speak or hear, which should making playing football - a game that by its very nature demands that players are vocal - very difficult indeed. Well, that's what I thought anyway. Fully kitted out, the deaf team are a revelation. "I explained the drill that I was going to do with them to the two girls doing the sign language and they just got it immediately," revealed Anthony Wright, when we finally returned to the hotel after two hours of coaching. "Bang! They were doing everything I asked straight away and it wasn't a simple drill either. I did the same drill with the Vauxhall Reserves last week and some of them struggled with it. They were quick, they were nimble, they had good touches and they knew what they were doing. I'd go so far as to say that they were the best deaf footballers I've ever come across."

So good, in fact, that Dani Pacheco didn't even realise they were deaf. The Spanish U-20 star was one of seven first team squad players - Conor Coady, Alberto Aquilani, Brad Jones, Jack Robinson, Andre Wisdom and Soto Kyrgiakos were the others - who joined the Community Coaches this afternoon to help train not just the deaf team but also other children present today with Down Syndrome, Autism and many other disabilities. "I was watching them and just thought that they were very good players," Pacheco told us later. "It wasn't until one of the coaches told me that they were deaf that I realised. As soon as he said it, I then noticed that the game was silent. Until then, I didn't think anything of it. Now I know, I think it's amazing. I've tried football blindfolded and that was really difficult but this is different - obviously they can see the ball but it must still be hard for them not hearing a team-mate shout for the ball or call a pass. I was really impressed."

Pacheco is actually a pretty impressive footballer himself - and not just for what he can do on the pitch. "That young lad is an absolute credit to Liverpool Football Club," remarked Mark Chester, who is managing the Community Department's activities while we're here in Asia, after the player had returned to the hotel. "He has been tremendously helpful and enthusiastic about everything he's been asked to do today. In fact, by the end of the session, he was just getting involved in helping out even before being asked. I actually had to pull him out of one activity when it was time for the players to leave - I think he probably would have stayed as he was having so much fun. You notice the little things with him - one Autistic boy was really upset when he fell over after being given the chance to take a penalty kick and Dani was straight over, trying to help him up and encouraging him to have another go. The kids and their parents clearly took to him and I think he took to them too. All of the players who turned up were brilliant though - posing for pictures, signing shirts and generally just making it a great afternoon for everyone. Footballers and football clubs in general can get a bad press sometimes but lots of people don't see events like these today."

 

17:10: We're done for the day. Three events, three venues and over 150 men, women and children coached the Liverpool Community way. Not a bad day's work for four young men from Liverpool. "I think it went well," claims a clearly exhausted Mark Chester back at the hotel. "I think we reached out to a lot of people and hopefully brought them some enjoyment. I certainly hope they all enjoyed it. This morning in a Q&A session, one woman asked me why we did it, why we - Liverpool Football Club - had sent coaches into their sports complex, a sports complex specifically designed for disabled sportsmen and women. I said it's because it's what Liverpool Football Club believes in. We're a global brand but deep down we're still a family club and events like today, and those we do every day back home, are designed to try and make everyone feel like they too can be part of the Liverpool FC family. It's really that simple."