Official: Liverpool Sign Ben Davies From Preston North End

Liverpool have officially completed the first of what are expected to be two deadline day signings, announcing the arrival of 25-year-old centre half Ben Davies.

According to reports, the club will pay a fee of £1.6M, with just £500k up front and the remainder made up of add-ons. Preston will also receive 20% of any future sale of the player.

Preston chose to sell Davies now rather than lose him for free in the summer, with rumoured Scottish and bottom-half Premier League interest in the player making a move away from the mid-table Championship side nearly inevitable.

In fact, were it not for Liverpool’s late interest he might have ended up at Celtic today, with the Scottish club admitting they lost out on a player they believed would sign for them.

“Each situation creates opportunities,” noted Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp of the club’s late decision to sign Davies.

“I think it’s probably clear that in a normal transfer window, without any issues, we would not look at Preston if there’s a player for us or something like that. It’s not really likely. But since we saw him and since our situation got clearer we got really excited.

“We see the potential really. We see the quality and we see the potential as well because he’s 25 and there’s a lot to come for him.”

With Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez likely out for the remainder of the 2020-21 season, Davies will have every chance to establish himself at the club—whether as a long-term fourth centre half or something more than that.

He is expected to be joined at the club by another new centre half signing, Schalke’s 20-year-old Turkish international Ozan Kabak, later in the day.