Jarell Quansah is the most recent Liverpool star to sign a ‘car clause’ in his contract – something all young players at the club are required to do.
The 20-year-old central defender has enjoyed a breakthrough season at Anfield, having made 14 appearances across all competitions for Liverpool so far this term. However, the club are doing all they can to ensure Quansah’s feet remain firmly on the ground if this contract clause is anything to go by.
As revealed by club academy director Alex Inglethorpe, Liverpool have implemented a strict policy that forbids the younger players in and around the first team from arriving at training in flashy vehicles. Inglethorpe explained why the rule is in place while speaking to the We Are Liverpool podcast.
“There’s a balance, so what we now do is that the players sign up to a car clause. You don’t want them driving in with a Range Rover,” he explained. “The reason you don’t want them driving in with something which is too big, too grand, too much of a statement is because it’s not just the manager and staff that might have an opinion on you but it’s the senior players.
“I’m not sure that James Milner, Jordan Henderson, Andy Robertson, the first cars they drove, there would’ve been an element of humility and I use it in a presentation with the boys. “You can’t go into a race you’re never going to win, I don’t mean with the car, I mean with life, you can’t think ‘I am a first-team player because I have a better car’.
“We could afford to pay them more but we don’t because I don’t think that would be right, there’s something around deferred gratification than instant, you should earn it a little bit and the players know if we don’t approve of their car, they can park it in the David Lloyd [Gym] car park but it won’t be in the Academy. I don’t want to be an idiot about it but I don’t want them to work 10 years for an audition and fail it before they’ve even set foot on the pitches.”
“There’s a balance, so what we now do is that the players sign up to a car clause. You don’t want them driving in with a Range Rover,” he explained. “The reason you don’t want them driving in with something which is too big, too grand, too much of a statement is because it’s not just the manager and staff that might have an opinion on you but it’s the senior players.
“I’m not sure that James Milner, Jordan Henderson, Andy Robertson, the first cars they drove, there would’ve been an element of humility and I use it in a presentation with the boys. “You can’t go into a race you’re never going to win, I don’t mean with the car, I mean with life, you can’t think ‘I am a first-team player because I have a better car’.
“We could afford to pay them more but we don’t because I don’t think that would be right, there’s something around deferred gratification than instant, you should earn it a little bit and the players know if we don’t approve of their car, they can park it in the David Lloyd [Gym] car park but it won’t be in the Academy. I don’t want to be an idiot about it but I don’t want them to work 10 years for an audition and fail it before they’ve even set foot on the pitches.”
