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Over the summer, Liverpool repeatedly found themselves linked to two free agent goalkeepers, with rumours flying that they would sign either Victor Valdes or Guillermo Ochoa. In the end they signed neither, as Ochoa headed to Malaga and Valdes, still not fully recovered from his knee injury, is now set to join Manchester United.
With Valdes off the table, it was probably always inevitable that Liverpool would find themselves linked to another goalkeeper or three ahead of the January window. What's surprising is that one of the names they're now being linked to is Ochoa. Who signed a three-year deal to replace Willy Caballero at Malaga over the summer and is no longer a free agent.
One would think that if Liverpool had wanted him that badly they could have gotten him when he wasn't under contract. However, at the time Malaga was promising starting minutes while all Liverpool could offer was the chance to compete for playing time with Simon Mignolet. Since signing on, though, Ochoa has ended up second choice to Carlos Kameni at Malaga.
That along with continuing question marks surrounding Mignolet's place at Liverpool could, at least in theory, make Liverpool a more desirable destination for Ochoa than it was in August. Still, it's hard to escape the rank smell of reheated rumour mongering here; a feeling it's a case of player who was linked before hasn't settled at his new club so let's link him again.
Plus, even if he's out of favour at Malaga, Liverpool would now have to pay some kind of a transfer fee for him. Given the club were never rumoured to be offering him more than the chance to compete for the starter's job, that seems a bit of a stretch. Not that things seeming a stretch or even downright unreasonable has ever stopped the rumour mongers before.
