BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_Sport
SPARTANS chairman Craig Graham insists the Edinburgh amateurs have secured a āhuge coupā after announcing a glamour friendly against English giants Liverpool.
The Lowland League outfit will host an Anfield XI on July 15, with Jurgen Klopp expected to send the cream of his under-23 talent north. There is also the possibility of some senior players featuring depending on their full squadās commitments.
Graham reckons the occasion will echo
He said: āItās a huge coup for everyone who has helped to make it happen and will be a wonderful day for the staff, players, supporters and wider community here.
āLooking back to when Manchester United visited, it got the excitement going among the youth clubs, the schools and brings the whole area together.
āI would imagine their first-team will probably be on tour somewhere so the discussions will be similar to the ones we had with Manchester United and, on that occasion, a future World Cup winner [Pogba], Darren Fletcher and Tomas Kuszsak made the journey up.
āLikewise, Liverpoolās young players will be among the best in the world in their age group – internationals at their level – and will be better than ours, so it will be a fantastic experience.ā
It is understood Liverpool and Scotland icon Kenny Dalglish, described as a āfriend of Spartans’, played a part in
The fixture will serve as part of their academyās 10-year anniversary celebrations
Graham added: āOur under-11s side actually went down to play a Liverpool team in a seven-a-side game at the start of December [2018] and we had really good feedback in terms of how the boys played, behaved and how the coaches carried themselves.
āSo we got talking and discussions evolved. Given
āItās fantastic recognition for everyone who works so hard for Spartans; that even clubs like Liverpool say ālook what these guys are doing, they are worth a visitā.ā
Graham added: āOur capacity is 3,500 and when we played Manchester United we got pretty close to that capacity. Weāll certainly be looking at one of our biggest ever crowds when Liverpool come to town.ā