Nando's official site has a new great design!
http://www.fernando9torres.com/index.php?lang=uk
October 20, 2008
Would you like to get to know Melwood with Fernando Torres as your guide?
Fernando Torres: “I want the visitors to my website to know everything about Melwood.” Said and done. The Liverpool number ‘9’ will be our guide as he opens the doors to the Anfield club’s training complex. For any football fan around the world, the chance to visit the Merseysiders’ centre of excellence would be a dream come true.
English football is all about tradition, with every custom passed down from generation to generation. As soon as one enters Melwood, Liverpool’s training ground since the 1950s, one can almost sense these long-standing traditions and memories.
Each and every corner tells a story of a working class society’s fight to achieve success on the pitch. Anecdotes from a long list of Liverpool legends, heroes like Bob Paisley or Bill Shankly, line the corridors of Melwood.
Five decades have passed since the ball first started to roll at Melwood. Now a group of players form the Iberian peninsular have their chance to forge their name in Merseyside folklore… these players are: Fernando Torres, Pepe Reina, Xabi Alonso, Álvaro Arbeloa, Albert Riera…
Melwood is built on land which used to form part of a school run by Priests. Father Meling and Father Woodlock regularly spent their time teaching the children the basics of football. It was these two church members, who gave their name to Liverpool’s training complex.
Fifty years have passed-by, and today a smiling freckled face awaits at the entrance to give us a tour of the famous complex. Fernando Torres has become the new idol of the Anfield faithful, a set of fans who never abandon their team. Liverpool supporters appreciate good football, but far beyond the result, the fans also value graft, team-work and determination. A player’s origin, language or beliefs are never a problem. The fans only care about football and the Red shirt of Liverpool F.C.
Fernando joins us after a training session. He pops his head around the corner still wearing his training gear and a pair of flip-flops. “Hello! Are you ready for the Melwood tour?”
For some time now, Fernando has wanted to show visitors to his website his place of work. It has taken just one year for the forward to feel at home on Merseyside. He almost feels as if he had been raised on Red soil.
Access to the main enclosure and reception hall is through a glass-screen door which carries the club’s badge. All that can be heard along the unvarnished wooden walls is silence. The silence however is finally broken by some whispering in Spanish. Pepe Reina can be seen making his way up the corridor. The Liverpool goalkeeper is the team joker, and we catch him just as he’s headed towards the showers wrapped in just a towel. Fernando smiles at Pepe. “Where are you off to?” Reina cracks a joke in reply. “He’s a class act,” says Torres. “He’s always lifting everyone’s morale, and he transmits so much positive energy!”
Fernando continues to walk along the corridor towards a room adjacent to the reception hall, halfway between the team’s dressing room and the club’s training pitches. “Here is where we change into our football boots. It’s the same rule here for the players and coaching staff, regardless of whether you play for the first team or in the club’s reserves.” The room contains several simple wooden cross panels which form small cubby-holes. Each player has two cubby-holes, each big enough for two pairs of shoes or trainers. There are no doors, or padlocks. Everyone shares the same facilities, every player sits on the same wooden bench. The first team players store their boots on the right, and the reserve team players and coaching staff on the left.”
From the boot room there is a corridor that leads to several other areas. It is a narrow corridor with glass panelling waist-high. “On the right is the heated pool, and on left is where the physiotherapists do their stuff.” The 'workshop' is where the Red players regain full fitness. At the back is the gym. Fernando enters the precincts of the pool and proudly stands over the mosaic which rests on the bottom of the pool. The famous words 'You'll never walk alone' can be easily made out from under the crystal clear water. “These words can be read everywhere. It can never slip your mind that here, at this club, you will never walk alone.”
Upon leaving we meet a physio who greets us in Spanish. The physio’s name is Paco de Miguel, another member of the Iberian colony based on Merseyside. Funny enough, Paco coincided with Fernando in the youth set-up at Torres’ previous club, Atletico Madrid. “There are a lot of Spanish people about here today” jokes Paco, as if the ‘chance meeting’ with a Spaniard was a novelty!
The players have at their disposal the best possible facilities on offer in the gym. The physical preparation side of football is a healthy obsession of Rafa Benitez. “At Melwood we have no real excuse for not being physically fit. These facilities offer everything you could ever need to be in the best possible shape.” Fernando continues to guide us through the gym, but the forward stops for a second to strike a punch-bag. “Our training sessions are more personalized and twice a week you work exclusively on improving your virtues. Forwards, defenders and midfielders are not required to play the same game and therefore they do not need to have the same physical build or needs. These methods allow you to improve a lot faster and with quicker all-round results.”
These methods have improved the performance of each player, multiplying their strengths and improving their weaknesses. At Melwood you are encouraged to always look ahead, as a player can always learn to offer more. In his first year Torres destroyed his goalscoring records. The achievements are the result of a thorough and methodical process aimed at developing human potential to the maximum.
A family that eats together stays together, and at Melwood lunch time is a family affair. On the top floor the noise of cutlery can be heard. It’s the place where all the players sit at the same table and enjoy the club-cooked menu. This is an example of another of the working class hallmarks… at the end of a day’s work (on the training ground or in the gym) the players share their experiences over a nice healthy meal.
“We have breakfast at nine o’clock, train and have lunch, although the meal is not compulsory. There are no special reserved areas, and we all eat the same food. Here we are under a comprehensive dietary control”. There is also no hierarchy system as everyone from the first team squad to the youth teams, share both the lounge area and a games area. They can play table-football in the games area, and that’s about it.
The offices belonging to the members of the coaching staff are found on the top floor of the main complex. We make our way down a corridor and yet again we can hear two Spanish voices heading our way. The voices belong to Rafa Benitez, the Liverpool boss, and Eduardo Macia, the technical secretary of the Reds’ scouting network. Following a short greeting, we all get into a conversation about… football.
The day-to-day goings-on in the first team take up most part of the conversation. The club directors and employees always have time for a chat. “The work of Rafa Benitez at Liverpool is much broader than that of a coach in Spain. Here, he is not just a coach, he’s the manager: he makes the signings and has absolute control over the reserves and youth sides,” adds Fernando.
We also bumped into the friendly face of David Bygroves, coordinator of the Melwood Sport Complex. David is the person in charge, and he always makes sure that everything you might ever need, is there for you. He welcomes us in perfect Spanish and shares a few jokes. David then leads us into the Press Room. The room is one of the most visited places by the general public inside Melwood. The room lies next to the main reception hall and, not surprisingly, next to huge image of Liverpool’s famous club badge.
“This is where the members of the media come for interviews or press conferences. It’s the only area open to the press, except on rare occasions when they allowed to take photographs of the players during a training session; but only for a few minutes. The sessions they are normally allowed to attend are the ones ahead of the Champions League match.” Both the press and fans respect the players’ day-to-day privacy as nine out of ten training sessions are closed to the press, and ten out of ten are behind closed doors for the general public.
The tour comes to an end and Fernando Torres bids us farewell with the same smile he shared with us at the start of the day. The smile is from someone who is happy at having fulfilled his promise. Torres has a final message for the visitors to his website: “I hope you have liked the tour of Melwood, and I look forward to seeing you all again soon on my website.”
Hundreds of fans, mostly young children, wait for Fernando at the main entrance. They all hold paper pads or pages pulled-out of school books, as they queue up for a signed autograph from their idol. They have been waiting patiently all morning. Torres, the Liverpool number ‘9’ will be with them shortly.
Photographs: J.A. Sirvent
