Imagine his agent ringing and being all “Liverpool want to sign you“
Haha would have been a great moment to catch on camera
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As the most supposedly ITK pundit you could possibly have in this situation, Lawro only had one job: draw positive parallels to his own identical path 40 years ago. So obviously he fucked the job up.
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There’s no play in his axial movements. He’s been assembled to the most exacting standards at Preston Milling Machines. Tolerances down to 1 millionth of a mil.
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I’m not surprised that guy doesn’t know who he is, he knows a bit about baseball and golf but like most Americans, shit about football. 
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Another body at CB obviously can’t hurt, but I think he’ll just be a back-up, as we have now found some stability at the back, with Hendo and Nat. If no other injury occurs, we should be fine with this lad on the bench. If further injuries occur, then this move will make sense, although we shouldn’t expect any miracles.
This is a Championship player we are talking about, so expectations need to be kept in check. He can make a job as a sub when we are already comfortably in front, in order to rest someone, or need to get a further body at the back to defend in the last minutes or so. There’s no way this is a first team player.
I for one am looking forward to see the Hendo/Phillips partnership blossoming further, that’s my main interest. They have done well lately, against some dangerous attacking teams. Keep them in there and build on that.
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Virgil van Dijk played for Celtic on his way from Dutch football to the Premier League so they do occasionally pick up decent players. Lennon is quite spectacularly useless as a manager. You could stick him in charge of us and we would get relegated.
As for Davies, I see him more as a Ragnar Klavan than the next van Dyke. He will fill a position for us when no one else is available and has more experience than our under 20s. To some extent he is a Steven Caulker signing but I suspect that there has been a little more evaluation this time.
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I’ll be honest if we were not in dire straits over CB Phillips and Co would probably be out on loan with no guarantee of being a regular starter in the Prem or Championship. So the lad may be a bit stronger than we think.
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Caulker had decent top-flight experience, but in terms of where he was as a person at that time, he was a complete mess. To his credit, he has apparently since successfully fought his demons and got his career back on track.
By all accounts Davies is a consummate pro and a nice guy, I think he’ll do better for us than Caulker did.
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Liverpool will pay an initial fee of just £500,000 for Ben Davies as the Preston North End defender closes in on a move to Anfield.
The centre-back will complete a medical on Monday morning ahead of a move from the Championship.
It is understood that sporting director Michael Edwards made initial contact with PNE on Thursday before talks accelerated over the weekend.
The Premier League champions have fended off interest from several others to stand on the brink of a first deal of the January transfer window.
Liverpool will pay just £500,000 up front with an additional £1.1m in add-ons that are understood to include an England international cap clause.
Preston have a 20 per cent sell-on clause in the deal for a player who joined their ranks as an 11-year-old.
The majority of the clauses, however, are centred around appearances for Jurgen Klopp’s first team as Davies gets set to bolster a centre-back department that has been hit with injuries all season.
Home grown too, so no need for anyone to leave the squad.
Maybe another Edward’s master class. It certainly hasn’t broken the bank.
Good luck to the lad, I hope he does well.
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Umm I was actually talking about myself. My knowledge of the wider game these days is Woe…American.
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Ok, as this seems to be genuine:
- How is the injury record of this lad?
- Is he any good? I can’t see a 25 years old player easily making the step between mid-table Championship and top-level premiership. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
- What is the length of the offered contract? Hopefully not a long-term one?
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A sign of the times I’m afraid. We used to shop at Harrod’s, now it’s B&M.
Injury record not terrible, but it does seem like he’s had some hamstring issues the last couple of seasons.
I’d imagine we’ll find out contract details over the next few hours. As for whether he’s good, it sounds like the club believe he’ll be more suited to playing in our high line than Nat or Rhys as he’s a fair bit quicker, confident on the ball and good at building up play.
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Harmstrings issues, eh? What could ever go wrong with that…
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He’s had three hamstrings in the last two seasons. Out for a month each time. Other than that I know nothing about him and neither does anyone else. This signing might be another Robbo but it took him a few months to establish himself in the team and it’ll be the same with this guy assuming he’s even good enough. So, far as I see it, this doesn’t take us forward, not immediately, which is what we need. I said yesterday I hoped we’d be targeting another more experienced CB who we can drop straight in there and it looks like that is happening. Would be very disappointing if this lad was seen as the solution to our current crisis.
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I imagine that if his contract was not coming to an end, he would cost a fair bit more.
Will be interesting to see how he settles, but reading up on him, he’s decent at passing, and a lefty. Pretty tall and athletic, although not a big header of the ball/
He’s not the flashy signing we want, but you just never know what Klopp can make of a centre back that’s technically coming into his prime.
Stick me in at CB in this Liverpool team and I bet I’d look much much better compared to if I were playing at PNE.
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5’ 11’’ (1,81 meters). That’s not what I’d call tall for a center back position. For me it’s not a decisive factor, but he’s definitely not VVD, Matip or Gomez. Phillips is 6’3’’ as well.
Can’t talk about his strength or athleticism, but this is a relatively small player we are speaking about, and definitely not one you’d like to play against the likes of Burnley etc.
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Think you’ve googled Spurs’ Ben Davies there, the Preston one is 1.85m.
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