Rumour Mongering: Liverpool Send Sheffield Ben Davies Message

Ben Davies arrived at Liverpool from Preston North End in January in a £1.6M deal at a time when there were just six months remaining on his contract with the Championship club and he was expected to move on a free in the summer.

Since then, the player has made no appearances in competitive action for the Reds, and with injured players returning and new signing Ibrahima Konaté in the mix, the 25-year-old’s prospects for playing time in 2021-22 don’t look stellar.

Davies, though, is at the very least a solid Championship defender, and likely even would be in contention to start for some Premier League sides—hence Preston recouping even £1.6M for a player with six months left on his contract.

That has led to rumours of interest from the likes of Celtic, Bournemouth, and Sheffield United this summer, and according to local reports it’s Sheffield who are most interested in the player’s services. There’s only one problem.

Namely, that the Championship promotion hopefuls want a loan deal while Liverpool are inclined to seek a profit on Davies given they signed him to a five-and-a-half year contract when they brought him in from Preston back in January.

For Liverpool, there is little motivation to move Davies on quickly—he’s a homegrown player and while centre half currently looks a position of great depth, three of the players ahead of him on the depth chart are returning from injury.

With a small initial outlay for the player and likely reasonable wages, plus Nat Phillips likely to depart, it’s hard to see the club not keeping Davies on hand as a depth option if loan offers are the best interested clubs can manage.