It’s now become clear that even the Liverpool supporters are struggling to understand their signing of Celtic January target Ben Davies.
Davies looked set to join the Hoops after reportedly agreeing a pre-contract deal [Sky Sports]. In the end, however, Liverpool came in at the last minute and signed him immediately and permanently. Former Celtic boss Neil Lennon stated that the English Premier League champions simply “gazumped” his attempts [Sky Sports].
It was a massive blow both to Celtic and Lennon at the time. We were in desperate need of a centre-back with Shane Duffy performing poorly and Christopher Jullien out with a knee injury. The only deal we managed to do was a loan for Jonjoe Kenny to cover for the losses of Jeremie Frimpong and Hatem Elhamed respectively.
Celtic failed to sign another centre-back, and it’s cost us. We would go on to lose cross-ball goals against the likes of St Johnstone, Ross County, and Rangers to name a few. It’s fair to say failing to bag Davies may even have cost Lennon his job in the end.
Yet, he’s been left starved of first-team action since leaving Preston for Merseyside. He’s still yet to play a single minute and has only managed to make the bench on four occasions. This is despite the fact Liverpool are supposed to have an injury crisis at the back.
Both Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez have been out for months. Joel Matip is another out with an ankle injury. When they return, Davies looks set to be around sixth-choice at best.
There’s a centre-back crisis at Liverpool, yet Ben Davies still can’t get near the team
It was a totally random move at the time and even now there’s been no clarity on why Liverpool felt the need to sign him. Jurgen Klopp simply stated that Davies’ integration will take as long as it takes – refusing to put a timescale on things [Liverpool Echo].
He was again snubbed for Saturday’s 3-0 win at Arsenal. Instead, Nathanial Phillips and loan star Ozan Kabak started the contest. Let’s not pretend Davies is anywhere near Klopp’s plans at the moment.
It will be interesting to see if the next Celtic manager revisits this. Should it be Eddie Howe, it would hardly be too surprising if he was to make a move given his contacts down south.
But it’s unlikely that Liverpool would get rid of Davies permanently so soon into his Anfield career. And if we are to replace the likes of Duffy and Kris Ajer next year, something more permanent would surely be in order.
Regardless, here’s a look at what the Liverpool fans are saying about the Davies signing. It’s fair to say even they are struggling with it:
https://twitter.com/AlexFtbl/status/1378478838112530432
https://twitter.com/LFC_Taa/status/1378409239803224069
In other news, we point out why the latest Howe to Celtic report suggests the board have learned a key reason.
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