“It was incredible and like I said earlier, when you’re asked to take charge, you’re never going to turn it down. Whether it was a bit too soon for me at the time, who knows, but sometimes you don’t know until you take the plunge,” Page says.
“We developed some good players with the U21s and I think there was about 15 players that we brought through to the senior team.
“We were in a transition at the time. We had some exceptional players like Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey but they were coming to the end of their careers so we looked to players like Daniel James, Brennan Johnson and Harry Wilson, who you guys will know from his Liverpool days.
“It took a couple of years to get from the senior group to that next generation and I think what helped us was that we had the Nations League games. They enabled us to expose the younger players to a high level of opposition and we knew that would make them better in the long run.
“Don’t get me wrong, in the qualifiers you want to play your best XI and win. But when we got promoted in the Nations League from B to A, we were up against top sides and while we want to win every game, is that realistic?
“The chances are we might have to suffer without the ball quite a bit so we thought, ‘Let’s expose some of the best young players to it.’ That’s what we did with Neco [Williams], Ethan Ampadu, Brennan Johnson, Daniel James, Joe Rodon.
“We played those lads and knew they would inevitably become better having gone through those experiences. I always wanted to leave Wales in a better position than when I joined. That was my aim so I always had one eye on the future.”
Page was, then, thinking developmentally even in the results-driven business of senior international football.
Now, preparing players for the future – and hopefully a career in Liverpool’s senior team – is the very essence of his job.
Day-to-day, the U21s emulate Arne Slot’s seniors in terms of their training schedule, while Page leads sessions designed to reflect the Premier League champions’ playing style.
“You’re one step away from joining the first team so we’ve got to mirror what the gaffer does. It’s about giving our players the tools so that when they do step up, when they are called on, it’s not a big shock, a big culture shock, for them,” he notes.
“The manager has been brilliant with us. Maybe once a week we’ll go over and train with them and it’s great for the players. It’s great for us coaches because we get to go over and watch the first-team coaches and manager, but for the players to join in, it gives them a lift straight away.
“You can see the energy increase by 50 per cent straight away because they are training with the first-team players and it’s an incredible experience for them. We really enjoy the time that we spend with them and they couldn’t be more accommodating to us.
“They’ve been brilliant. When our players go over, the first-team players make them feel comfortable and have conversations with them. For Rio [Ngumoha], for example, to go over and settle in like he has says a lot about the senior players over there in terms of helping the younger ones.
“We share the same building and there is a close relationship between both groups.”
