‘Crucial and vital’ – Steven Gerrard says there’s one player Liverpool absolutely must not sell

Gerrard implores Liverpool not to sell Jones

Gerrard has spoken about the importance of the academy system at Liverpool and how those from the locality have an innate understanding of what it means to play for the Reds.

He told BFM Radio: “I think the academy system at our club is crucial and vital. It’s important we keep producing homegrown talents. I think naturally, being around the city, growing up in the city, we understand the demands of the club, the style, what the fans want. It’s embedded in us because we know the city inside out.

“I wouldn’t allow Curtis Jones to leave. I wished and hoped that Trent didn’t leave us. Certainly, you’ll understand and respect every player has got their own career and can make their own decisions.”

Gerrard added: “I think it’s critical and key that we keep producing homegrown talent, and what you do have to say is that Liverpool have been really good at that.

“If you look back, Michael Owen, Jamie Carragher, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Trent, myself – even the likes of players like Jay Spearing and Stephen Warnock who don’t play the [same] amount of games, but they still come into the team and they understand the values and the principles of what we’re about.”

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Jones has proven his importance to Liverpool

A player’s birthplace shouldn’t dictate whether or not they’re in the first team at Liverpool – their qualities as a footballer are by far the most important criterion – but such is the club’s history of producing homegrown talents that an LFC squad without a Scouse presence would feel almost unnatural.

Jones has proven over the course of his career that he’s earned 226 senior appearances on merit and not as a box-ticking exercise because he’s a Merseysider, and his raw outburst after the Anfield thrashing by PSV Eindhoven this season shows that he understands what it means to play for this club.

Admittely he struggled in the 1-1 draw against Chelsea last weekend, but so did many of his teammates; and he was tasked once more with playing at right-back, which isn’t his natural position.

That willingness to adapt to an unfamiliar role on the pitch for the team’s benefit emphasises ther 25-year-old’s value to Liverpool, that he’s prepared to sacrifice his best qualities for the collective good.

At a time when the Reds are set to lose several long-serving stalwarts, we need new leaders to emerge within the dressing room, and Jones could be one of those all-important standard bearers.

We understand if he wishes to move elsewhere in order to start more regularly, but like Gerrard, we fervently hope that FSG don’t cash on him this summer.