Michael Beale names the one player Liverpool asked him to keep an eye on.
Former Liverpool coach Michael Beale spoke to Goal about that time when the Reds asked him to keep an eye on one particular defender.
Beale spent almost five years at Liverpool as a coach of their under-23’s team. He spent six months in Sao Paulo back in 2017 and he claims that that the Reds asked him to keep an eye on Eder Militao.
He said: “He was a good player and Liverpool already knew about Eder and asked me to keep an eye on him. We went to the academy and picked eight players to start pre-season with us. Eder was one.”
“We gave eight or nine debuts in our 36 games there. Eder was like what Trent [Alexander-Arnold] is doing now. You wished he would do it but sometimes you don’t see how they can do it so quickly.”
Liverpool didn’t follow through on their interest and Militao eventually left Sao Paulo for Portuguese giants Porto. The Brazilian’s performances there caught the eye of Real Madrid who paid a staggering £43.5 million for the then 21-year-old. (Guardian)
Liverpool could have bagged him for a fraction of that fee if they had made their move a year earlier but things have changed massively now.
The Reds wouldn’t be ones to regret their decision considering how good their defence is at the moment. Virgil van Dijk is arguably the best defender in the world while Joe Gomez is making big strides next to the Dutchman.
Militao would certainly have loved to have played next to a defender of van Dijk’s quality but a chance to play for a club as big as Real Madrid doesn’t come knocking every day and he surely wouldn’t have any regrets about joining them.
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