Liverpool are to soon unveil Barry Lewtas as their new Under-18s manager to replace Steven Gerrard in what will be a landmark appointment, according to Goal.
The football site claim the Merseyside giants will promote Lewtas from his current role as Under-16s boss to take over the Under-18s for the forthcoming season in an appointment to be announced imminently.
Goal report that Lewtas will step up following Gerrard’s departure while Neil Critchley will remain in charge of Liverpool Under-23s for the 2018-19 campaign.
OPINION
Lewtas does not have the profile of some of the other Liverpool age-group coaches, and is probably not a household name in his own household. But he has certainly done the hard yards at the club’s Kirkby academy since joining in 2013 following spells at Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic. He initially coached the under-12s at the Academy before taking over the Under-15s in 2015 and then the Under-16s a year later. He has been credited with playing a key role in the development of gifted youngsters such as Curtis Jones and Adam Lewis, and has worked closely Kop legend and former Academy director Steve Heighway, who was brought back to the club by current Academy director Alex Inglethorpe to pass on his expertise. It is a huge coup for Lewtas to get one of the two plum age-group coaching roles at Liverpool, which are the Under-18s and Under-23s. The two groups who are being prepared for senior football, ideally at Liverpool but, for those who don’t follow Trent Alexander-Arnold into the first team, at other clubs in England and across the globe.
