Beard Report: Melwood “A Great Platform to Progress” for LFC Women

Liverpool FC Women manager Matt Beard spoke with Liverpoolfc.com ahead of his side’s well-publicized move into Liverpool’s Melwood Training Ground today, a move which has been long coming.

Beard emphasized the importance of having a dedicated facility for his team’s continued progress:

You walk through and it’s our home. We had a great relationship with Tranmere Rovers, we’ve been at the AXA Training Centre for the last five weeks and that’s been fantastic too. But we’re moving into our own home now, our own facility, and it’s a world-class facility.

When I came back it was at the forefront and it’s always been in discussions, and finally to be here – it’s great. As always, the club have been fantastic, and this is game-changing for us and for our set-up.

Obviously it was kept under wraps and to hear it was Melwood, as I said before, I know the history of Melwood, I know the players that have been here, that have come through Liverpool’s system, that have represented this football club. It’s a great platform for us to continue to progress as a team, as a club. We’re so excited.

Beard is pleased with the space his team will have to prepare for the future:

They’ve worked incredibly hard to get it ready for us. I can’t wait for the players to see it, to see their dressing room, to see the gym and the canteen. Obviously the pitches are world-class. As I say, we keep coming back to it, but it gives us a great platform to be successful.

I think when you bring players here and they see the facilities, they see the pitches, they see what we’ve got, as I say, it’s game-changing for us with the players that we’ve got and for future recruitment. But we’ve got our base now, we’ve got our own home and that for me was so, so important when I came back, and the club has been fantastic in crossing the line.

Of course, I said before about the players that have trained on the pitches over there and the players that have represented this football club. We’ve got our own opportunity to do that, create our own history and hopefully make Liverpool Football Club proud.

You can see content of the Liverpool Women’s team touring their new facilities over on Liverpoolfc.com.