Liverpool Miss Out on Coventry Starlet

Liverpool had themselves a quiet deadline day by anybody’s standards, with any hopes for late movement on the Alex Teixeira front fading quickly and the biggest story of the day turning out to be that Jose Enrique could maybe possibly leave for Newcastle United on a free transfer. In the end, the move didn’t come off.

It was that kind of a day, and by the end of it, The Express’ Paul Joyce—a man with generally solid ties to the club—had resorted to talking about who Liverpool would be after in the summer. One of the more interesting possibilities put forward was Coventry’s 19-year-old midfielder James Maddison. But nothing would happen until summer.

Instead, today he’s is a Norwich City player, with the Canaries pipping not just Liverpool but also reportedly Tottenham and Arsenal to the youngster. All three clubs were rumoured to want Maddison but were willing to wait until the end of the season to move for him. Norwich didn’t wait, beating everyone else and agreeing a late deal.

Coventry might have gotten a little more had they waited for the bigger clubs to come calling for Maddison in the summer, but Norwich offered them cash up front. They also offered to send the player straight back for the second half of the season, similar to what Liverpool did at the start of the window when they signed Marko Grujic.

Just how serious Liverpool's interest was—or Arsenal's or Tottenham's—is up for debate, but at least for fans it's a quick resolution that means they won't have time to become overly attached to the idea of Maddison joining up in the summer.