Liverpool teen who emerged before Bradley was nowhere to be seen at Wembley

Liverpool teen who emerged before Bradley was nowhere to be seen at Wembley

For a while now, Liverpool’s academy has been regarded as one of the best in the world when it comes to developing talent.

Homegrown players such as Steven Gerrard and Trent Alexander-Arnold each made their way through the ranks and managed to become regular first-team players.

Then, others such as Harvey Elliott and even Stefan Bajcetic who were brought from other academies have been nurtured and allowed to develop into the players we see today.

A lot of Liverpool’s academy players are given chances within the first-team squad, this was shown during Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, in which Liverpool managed to triumph 1-0 over Chelsea.

Liverpool’s bench vs Chelsea

Player

Age

Joe Gomez

26

Bobby Clark

19

Kostas Tsimikas

27

James McConnell

19

Jayden Danns

18

Jarell Quansah

21

Adrian

37

Trey Nyoni

16

Lewis Koumas

18

However, not all of the Reds’ academy stories are full of sunshine and rainbows. Kaide Gordon is an example of a player who once had it all but ended up back at square one.

How good Kaide Gordon was before injury

As is the case with many youngsters, players are tipped to be ‘the next’ someone or another.

Due to the time in which Gordon was making his presence known around the Liverpool camp, Raheem Sterling just so happened to be in the limelight for his performances.

Prior to joining Manchester City for a reported fee of £49m, Sterling was among the best players for the Anfield club and was being touted for great things.

During his final season in Merseyside, the then-21-year-old managed a total of 21 goal contributions in just 52 games.

Hence, Gordon’s move from Derby as a young prospect was likened to that of Sterling’s acquisition from QPR by The Guardian’s, Chris Bascombe.

It was during the 2021/22 season in which Gordon made his debut for the Reds in an FA Cup third-round clash against Shrewsbury, during which he even managed to slot a goal into the back of the net.

Despite not appearing all too often throughout the campaign, during the four times he was chosen, he managed to make a solid impact and show the footballing world his talents.

Then, that was when disaster struck. Despite his meteoric rise and promising start to life as a Liverpool player, due to growing pains, the winger was sidelined for a grand total of 19 months, more or less shunting his growth entirely.

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On his injury, Jurgen Klopp spoke about the long-term layoff which the youngster had to endure.

“We were really unlucky with some of our big, big prospects,” he said to the media. “We had that problem that they were a little bit too good already for the physical status, let me say it like that.

“So they were that good that we thought they could help us already and everybody went in the right direction, and then the body said ‘no, stop’. And that happened to Kaide unfortunately two or three times. It was a really long time out.”

Gordon’s progress since recovering

The now 19-year-old has since recovered from his injury and has managed to join back in first-team training.

As per Transfermarkt, Gordon has even played in three senior games for the Reds this season, with one of his outings coming in the Europa League. He was also on the bench most recently in the club’s demolition of Luton Town.

However, sadly due to his injuries, he hasn’t managed to reach the heights of Sterling just yet and also missed out on the chance to lift the Carabao Cup with his teammates on Sunday.

A host of the club’s homegrown talent, namely Conor Bradley were all there but he had to watch on from the sidelines after not being named in the squad. It must have been sad for a young individual who was ahead of many of his peers when he first arrived from Derby.

Fortunately, as he builds himself up to full fitness, his time in Premier League 2 has been beneficial. This season, he has played a total of six games and has been involved with four goals thus far.

Here’s hoping that throughout the rest of the season or even the next couple, we see Gordon showcasing his natural ability to play football again.