Barnsley and Blackpool keen on Liverpool striker in potential loan deal | OneFootball

Liverpool have one of the best academies in England, perhaps second only to Manchester City in recent times as the 2022-23 Premier League 2 table shows.

With graduates such as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones, Stefan Bajcetic and Caoimhín Kelleher all in and around the first-team squad last year or in years gone by, there is a pathway for the Anfield kids to make an impact.

However, none of last season's under-21's regulars look ready to make a splash in Jurgen Klopp's squad, with a few of them perhaps needing loan moves away from the club.

One of those is Layton Stewart, and there are a clutch of League One clubs ready to try and take the 20-year-old striker on loan, according to Football Insider.

They claim that last season's losing play-off finals Barnsley, along with Blackpool and Northampton Town, want to sign the young forward for the 2023-24 season and that Liverpool would be keen to loan Stewart out to continue his development.

Who is Layton Stewart?

Stewart has been in the Liverpool academy since he was a child and he started to show his prolific nature in-front of goal during the 2019-20 season when he netted 15 times in 19 appearances in all competitions at under-18 and under-21 level, and he continued that into the following campaign with 17 goals in 18 matches.

A ruptured ACL though stalled Stewart's progress in March 2021, putting him on the sidelines for over a year and he only played three times in the 2021-22 season for the Reds' under-21's.

Stewart returned though fully-fit for the 2022-23 campaign and picked up where he left off, scoring 12 times in 20 appearances in the Premier League 2 and also the EFL Trophy, where he came up against League One and Two outfits.

The young striker was also handed his first-team debut by Jurgen Klopp back in November 2022 when Liverpool's head coach elected to select him from the very start against Derby County of League One, playing 66 minutes in a lone striker role before being substituted off.

Which club would be best for Layton Stewart?

Firstly, Barnsley are probably in need of a new striker after Man City loanee Slobodan Tedic went back to the Etihad Stadium, but Stewart is a completely different type of striker to the Serbian.

New head coach Neill Collins will have to consider his options though in attack, but perhaps the best place for Stewart to go will be to Bloomfield Road to sign for Blackpool and to link up with a man he's very familiar with in the form of Neil Critchley.

The Tangerines boss was in charge of Liverpool's under-18's until 2017 and then managed the under-23's from then until 2020, so he will know all about Stewart and what he can bring to the table.