Liverpool have missed out on reported target Lloyd Kelly to Bournemouth.
Lloyd Kelly snub
Bournemouth have signed Kelly from Championship club Bristol City in the summer transfer window for a fee reported by The Daily Mail to be worth £13 million.
It has been reported that both Arsenal and Liverpool were keen on the 20-year-old defender.
However, according to The Daily Mail, the left-back has concerns over playing time at the Reds and the Gunners, and he choose Bournemouth instead.
“Liverpool were particularly keen on Kelly as he can play left back and centre back but as competition grew, the deal became expensive and the England U21 international was also aware that he would arrive predominantly as understudy to Andy Robertson,” adds the report in The Daily Mail.
England Under-21 left-back Kelly made 26 starts and six substitute appearances in the Championship for City this season, scoring one goal in the process, according to WhoScored.
Matthijs de Ligt advice
The former Manchester United and Ajax central defender believes that the 19-year-old central defender will be a good partner at the back for Virgil van Djik.
De Ligt is one of the best young defenders in Europe, and has been superb for Ajax in the Eredivisie and the Champions League this season.
The Liverpool Echo quotes Stam as saying: “If you look at the squads: Barcelona, after losing to Liverpool, probably want to strengthen their squad, especially in defence, if you ask me. The question is how they are going to solve that problem.
“I think that Matthijs de Ligt would be a good fit though. It will be great to see how he performs against better players in a better league, not just every few weeks, but every weekend.
“The same goes for Liverpool. We all know who is their biggest defensive star – his Dutch colleague (Van Dijk) – the other players, Lovren and Matip, rotate quite a lot.”
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