Harvey Blair Player Profile – Liverpool FC | OneFootball

It is fair to say that not many people make the move from Manchester United to Liverpool. In fact, those old enough to remember Rafa Benitez’s time in the hot-seat will no doubt remember merry hell breaking out when the Reds were rumoured to be trying to sign Gabriel Heinze from the club’s fierce rivals. It is a slightly different story for youth prospects, of course.

Typically speaking, young players are able to move around the Academies with relative freedom, largely because they often aren’t old enough to have signed a professional contract and the laws are different for younger players than the are for senior ones.

All of that is relevant because Harvey Blair is one of the players that has moved from Old Trafford to Anfield in the past. It might be something of an exaggeration to suggest that he was ever at Old Trafford, mind. He was certainly part of the youth setup at Manchester United, but he left in order to join Liverpool’s Under-12 team having likely only seen Old Trafford as part of a tour of the crumbling old ground.

It was, however, a good sign of the direction of travel for the two clubs, with the Red Devils struggling to make any sort of impact on top-level football since the departure of Alex Ferguson and Liverpool returning to the top of the game.

Who is Harvey Blair?

Born on the 14th of September 2003 in Huddersfield, Harvey Antonio Blair attended All Saints Catholic College in the town when he was younger. Having showed some prowess on the football pitch, Blair was signed up into Manchester United’s youth program. When he was 12-years-old, however, he was brought over from the Red Devils to work with Liverpool’s Academy.

He remained with the Reds, working his way up through the Academy system and spent some time in the Academy with his older brother Marley, but Marley didn’t have quite what it takes to succeed at Anfield and was released by the club.

The same couldn’t be said of Harvey, though. The attacking player had caught the eye of those responsible for ensuring the development of younger players, with rumours emerging from the Academy that he would be one for the future. With a city like Liverpool, it is always worth paying attention when names emerge from the youth setup.

Michael Owen was being spoken about in glowing terms before he made his breakthrough, for example, whilst almost everyone on Merseyside had heard the name of Trent Alexander-Arnold before the defender was given his first-team debut. For Blair to be amongst such acolytes is a big honour.

By 2021 he was working with Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s U18s, which would have been the case the year before but for a long-term hamstring injury. When he returned from the injury, he set himself the target of playing as many games as possible in order to rack as much experience as he could.

Having seen injury ruin his first season with the Under-18s, he was determined to make up for lost time and do what he could to get into the Under-23s and progress towards the first-team. He impressed his coaches enough to mean that that they were always on the lookout for the opportunity to use him in the older age groups, with his debut being a surprise to everyone.

Making His Senior Debut

For Harvey Blair, the plan was to try to make the grade to be called up to the Under-23s, even though he was still a relative youngster. On the 21st of October 2021 he was expected to make the grade, waiting for the call to say that he’d be playing for the older age group.

He got a text from one of his friends saying, “It’s just been put in the U23s group, how come you’re not in the team?” Fearing the worst, he wondered whether his progress had been stalled for some reason, only to get a call from the U-23s analyst Ray Shearwood. He said, “You’re not going to be involved in the game with the U23s because Jürgen wants you to be up there to train.”

At best he imagined that he’d be training with the first-team and maybe travelling to Deepdale the following week in order to gain some experience of being with the squad for a big game. He was asked to train on the right-wing on the Monday of the week of the game, having been largely playing on the left-wing for the Under-18s.

On the day before the game, Blair was ready to do rondos with the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and other players that wouldn’t be starting the League Cup match against Preston North End. Instead, he was told that he was going to be starting the game, making his senior debut before his debut for the Under-23s.

It was James Milner who worked to calm him down, with the then-Liverpool Vice Captain saying, “Be yourself, express yourself because I know how good you are. Do everything you’ve been doing in training with us.” He was asked to play on the right in a forward line that also featured Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino, playing 55 minutes of the match that Liverpool went on to win 2-0.

Having been pushed over by Preston’s larger, more experienced players, Blair learned that he wouldn’t get a free-kick in the same way that he was getting when that happened in an Under-18s match. He struggled to make an impact, but loved his experience.

Speaking about his senior debut he said, “Even when I was getting back on to the coach just before we’re leaving the ground, I saw some of my mates in the crowd and they’re all smiling and videoing. I was just like, ‘Wow, this is just crazy.’ There were thousands of people. This is what I’ve been working for my whole life and it’s all come true. Hopefully moments like that can happen again.”

When Jürgen Klopp gave a post-match press conference in the wake of Liverpool’s League Cup win over Chelsea, he specifically name-checked Harvey Blair as one of the reasons the Reds had been able to enjoy glory in the competition.

A Bright Future

Harvey Blair signed his first professional contract with Liverpool in 2020, signing a new contract a year or so later. Having scored against Sunderland in an Under-18s league game as well as netting the winner against Aston Villa in the Premier League Cup, in addition to starting both ties when Liverpool took on Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Youth Cup, it was seen as a good moment to reward his work. The fact that he also performed admirably against Preston was another reason the club had chosen to offer him a new contract with slightly improved terms. The decision to offer him a new contract was soon rewarded, too.

Blair went on to score 14 times in all competitions in 2021-2022, also managing to feature for the Under-21s. When he returned from an injury ahead of the 2022-2023 season, he helped Barry Lewtas’s side charge to second place in the Premier League 2.

His performances were so impressive that he was nominated for the Premier League 2 Player of the Month award for April in 2023, alongside James Norris. That was thanks to a brace against Fulham in a 4-0 win in PL2 and a goal in a 2-2 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion in the same competition. Sadly he suffered another injury, which once again halted his progress.

Even so, once he was recovered from a knee injury suffered in pre-season that ruled him out for five months, there were plenty of sides keen to take him on loan in the January of 2024. Both EFL sides as well as some in Belgium and Denmark kept tabs on the winger, with Liverpool considering allowing him to go somewhere so that he would work to regain his fitness.

He remained well-liked by the club, with Jürgen Klopp even having called him up to train with the first team in pre-season just before he suffered that devastating knee injury. His pace alongside his ball control and intelligence is why so many think he has. Bright future at the club.