So he’d actually be an ITK on this deal then…
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I just found this and had a deja vu…
From Italia he came
Now the Kop sings his name
That’s Leoni
When he plays with Van Dijk
Makes the striker look shite
That’s Leoni
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One more verse and you’ll summon ANL out of his 1000 nights of slumber
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Seems that didn’t take long..that we know of, looks like a very useful acquisition.
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Hope we give him enough gametime but also not overplay him. He’s still very young as a footballer.
I’m always wary about footballers like Leoni who’ve had a sudden growth spurt. Quite a lot of times, the muscles aren’t developed enough. He should be training with the first team but the minutes on the pitch should be highly regulated. It’s a sizable amount for a 18 year old CB.
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Just multiply everything by 10 and pretend the stats are from 1990.
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Looking at the highlights on youtube, he seems a very ‘unitalian’ defender - sliding all over the place, shouldering off the ball etc. I thought the ethos was very much stay on your feet and having to make a tackle is not the sign of good defending. Perhaps the EPL is the place for him but, given the huge fee we have paid, I can also see that perhaps Italian clubs thought he aint worth that.
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Nothing much that can be gleaned from YouTube on this guy except that he seems to be a big unit (big like Konate) , front foot defender (again which is what we use /used all the right sided CBs as.
He does seem to be open to doing the long balls like Virgil though and it’s something that can be a plus.
Won’t be easily hassled off the ball, thats for sure. Impossible to see his quickness etc from those videos. It’s easy to sterotype big unit defenders like Konate as slow but as we’ve seen Konate can be pretty rapid as well.
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I just looked him up. 1.95. Same as Virgil. Still 18 as well so there may be the odd few mm still in him.
He seems to have the width as well. Was it between him and he Honey Monster?
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Been hanging around the Parma showers? 
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More than the odd few mm. He might even get an inch taller.
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So a fair bit was gleaned from the videos haha
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I noticed that too. He seems more Carra-like than Virg-like. And I don’t think that’s such a good thing.
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I’m not too concerned with a CB being a bit raw, especially at 18 years of age. Plenty to be excited ago with him too. Don’t think it’s a “huge” fee either given Lenny Yoro went for stupid money last year.
Love a slide tackle so can’t moan too much about that. Marc Guehi does too by the way.
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Actually a lot of Italian clubs were interested but they couldn’t afford him. EPL money is crazy compared to other pro leagues. Also he was pretty much convinced once Liverpool showed interest so I don’t think the other Italian clubs had a chance even if they desperately wanted him.
It looks like Leoni is coming straight to Liverpool, no loan discussed. This means Slot might consider him part of our first team plans. Sure he won’t get a lot of minutes straight away, he needs to earn trust in training first. But all indicators are that he is a top talent and Italy is a quality CB factory.
Personally I’m looking forward to see what Leoni can offer us. We are in real need of quality depth at CB. I think Guehi will be the next shoe to drop and then our CBs should be set.
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Hold on, so we sign an unexperienced 18 years-old boy for £ 26m, with zero experience of the country, language, PL and minimal experience at senior level, when we sold Quansah, a 22-years old with considerably more experience, and a local lad, for an initial fee of £ 30m?
Edwards and Hughes must feel that this Lion lad has huge potential, because otherwise, this deal is nuts. £ 26m for a boy who has played a bit more than 1’200 minutes at senior level? Geez… 
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Kind of mad how this fee for a defender with limited professional football gets brushed away these days. Not a critique of the fella, LFC or anyone saying that.
Just crazy where we are.
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I agree, I think Leverkusen got Quansah for a great price. We could probably have got at least £10m more for the lad, particularly from someone like Newcastle.
But Leoni at £26m may also prove to be excellent business. We’ll just have to wait and see.
What was clear though is that Quansah wasn’t (yet?) offering what Slot wants from his CBs and presumably Leoni has shown more of what Slot is looking for.
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