Ben Doak has taken another big step forward in this latest international break. But that is no surprise to former Liverpool youth player Niall Osborne.
“You could tell that he would always go on and do what he’s doing in the Championship,” Osborne tells Liverpool.com when asked about Doak, who is on loan at Middlesbrough. “He’s very good and it’s difficult to come up against him in training. You always knew that he had it in him to do what he’s doing. That’s what he did for us at U18 level and in training and in games as well.”
Doak is doing it with Scotland too. He gave Josko Gvardiol a difficult evening earlier in the week as he excelled against Croatia and took the latest step forward in his development — and Doak is just one of a number of young talents in an exciting period for the Liverpool academy.
“There’s quite a few I played with,” Osborne says. “There’s James McConnell, who is obviously still there, Isaac Mabaya, Terence Miles, Tommy Pilling, Bobby Clark, Ben Doak… I was part of their age group so those are the players I was playing with for the past couple of years.
“I trained with Stefan Bajcetic and obviously he made the jump quite early on to the 21s and the first team. You could tell that he had the level. I didn’t really play with Jarell Quansah because he was a couple of years older than me but for anyone coming up through the academy, it’s always good to have someone who is there and you can see it is achievable.”
Osborne left Liverpool in the summer and the 19-year-old is now at 1874 Northwich, in the ninth tier of the English soccer pyramid. Long-term, his aim is to return to the professional game.
“It was a privilege,” Osborne says of playing for the Reds. “I was there for the age of four or five and left at 19, so 14 years — it becomes the main part of your life and your life is molded around Liverpool. It was a good time to look back on with fondness.
“There was leaflets going around in school for a football camp one summer and it was something you could go along to a training session at the Liverpool academy. I went along and was asked back after that, and officially signed at the age of nine.
“I was there for a long period of time. It was always going to be a difficult transition but once you do finish, you almost want to draw a line under it and move on, ready for the next chapter in your life. You look back at the memories but you don’t want to dwell on it too much. It’s just about adapting and moving forward as quick as I could.
“I’m playing for Northwich now and I’ve just got a job at an estate agent in Manchester. That’s something I’ve been looking at for a while now, just trying to get something as well as playing.
“It’s been a really good start to the season. We had a really good FA Cup run and we equaled the record for how far the club has been in that competition, so that was a good start. We are unbeaten in five games and hopefully we can kick on up until and after Christmas as well.”
It is often said that playing U18s and U21s soccer is very different from the more competitive fixtures lower down the divisions. But Osborne feels he has already adjusted.
“It’s different but it’s something I’ve been able to easily adapt to,” he says. “I had a loan spell at the back end of last season in a similar league so I knew what to expect. But I’ve adapted well and the teammates I’ve had have helped me along with it.
“I had other offers but just speaking with the manager and stuff, I went down for a couple of games and the fans and the whole run of the club [impressed me]. It was a season where I needed to get as many minutes as possible and that’s what drew me to Northwich, playing in a decent league and hopefully try and get them promoted and carry on from there.
“I want to play full-time football if that’s possible, and if not then I want to play at the highest level I can. Getting Northwich promoted would be a big achievement for this season and then obviously see what happens after that.”
So far, Osborne has played in the majority of the matches for his new club since signing at the start of August. “The long-term plan would be to play as high as I can,” he says.
“For myself at the moment, it’s playing as many minutes as I can — I’m still 19 and I’ve still got a lot of developing to do. I missed a lot of games during my scholarship so I’m catching up on game time. To gain those minutes is valuable at the minute.
“If there are opportunities to move up the leagues with Northwich or elsewhere, that’s exactly what I want to do. Playing full-time football is what I want to do at the end of the day.”
