Brad Jones urges patient approach to success at Liverpool

Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Jones believes building rather than buying success will provide be a source of greater pride at Anfield.

With owners Fenway Sports Group looking to run the club on a more sound footing with Financial Fair Play in mind, the Reds are never likely to be in a position to compete with Europe's biggest spenders.

While the Americans have provided funds for significant purchases in the past, there is still a desire to see more value for money attained in the transfer market.

So with the likes of Raheem Sterling, Andre Wisdom and Suso all making significant contributions to the first team this season, the intention is for the club's academy to play a bigger role in the future.

Jones believes this, added to the progress made under manager Brendan Rodgers, points to a brighter future as they look to regain Champions League status.

"It is difficult to say (how much ground we have to make up)," the Australian, speaking at an event for charity Anthony Nolan, told Press Association Sport.

"The likes of Chelsea and Manchester City have spent unbelievable amounts of money. Liverpool haven't necessarily done that.

"It was documented a couple of years ago when the new owners came in and spent a fair bit in one go but you have to remember £50million of that came in from Fernando Torres.

"If you ask the teams that have, shall we say, 'bought' a winning team I don't think their fans will care because they have won something.

"But if you get to the top from building I think the fans grow with the team.

"When you get there there will be that extra bit of pride but for us we just have to keep building on what we have got and what the club have done."

Jones added: "The club aren't trying to go out and buy the league in one season.

"The owners are quite clever, they have seen it in other sports. For them it is a slow process, it is not going to happen overnight.

"I think they will be happy with what they have seen this season and obviously they will want it to move forward and make that next step and hopefully that will be next season.

"That is the direction we're going in and it is a good place to be."

Jones and his partner Dani Lawrence are prominent supporters of Anthony Nolan, the UK blood cancer charity, after the goalkeeper's six-year-old son Luca from a previous relationship died from leukaemia in November 2011.

They were present at an event at Anfield, also supported by the Liverpool FC Foundation, aimed at promoting the donor register.

"It was something that, after we lost Luca, we wanted to spread the word and get people on the list and have a legacy for him," explained Jones.

"When people hear bone marrow transplant they think 'pain' and it is really not like that, it is more like giving blood, and it is trying to get rid of those negative connotations.

"We are in a privileged position where I am at a massive club and people will follow what we do and listen to what we are saying.

"Obviously it is a positive to get people on the register and that means there is more chance of people getting a donor.

"We are trying to help others because it wasn't until we were there we realised just how hard it was."

Mark Haig, head of operations at the LFC Foundation, said the club occupied a unique position in being able to reach areas of the community others could not.

"The Foundation is quite broad but this initiative around Anthony Nolan we are very much supporting because we have a very close relationship with Liverpool NHS," he said.

"We can actually connect easier than agencies like the NHS because of the power of the LFC badge and the way people respond to it in different ways."

PA