Coventry Defender Impresses for Liverpool in First Trial Appearance

Coventry City’s 19-year-old Welsh youth international Cian Harries is considered one of the brighter young defensive prospects in the English lower divisions, and his club have taken the unusual step of allowing him to trial at Liverpool ahead of a potential transfer to Anfield.

A fee—as yet undisclosed—has been agreed in theory, and the youngster arrived on Merseyside yesterday. Only hours later, and before he’d had the chance to train with his potential new club, he was in the stating lineup for the U23s as they faced off against Bangor City.

"It's a difficult one because it is a little bit hush-hush but he’s done well tonight,” interim U23 manager Mick Garrity told The Liverpool Echo. “You can see he's going to play football, he seems a very, very nice player. He's only been with us for 24 hours so we'll see how that one works out.”

Harries played the full 90 minutes as the left-sided centre half as Liverpool comfortably won the game by a score of 6-0, and Harries will be expected to spend at least the next week training with the club before a final decision is made on whether Liverpool go ahead with the transfer.

According to the Coventry Telegraph, his current club are accepting that they must regularly sell their most promising young talent in order to remain financially viable as a League One side, and while their fans will be disappointed, they won’t be surprised by Harries’ potential sale.

Liverpool previously trialled a Coventry youngster in 2011, with Connor Thomas given a chance to impress with a proposed £1M transfer on the table, but on that occasion the Reds chose to pass and return the youngster to his club.