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With the departure of Pepe Reina, Liverpool need themselves a new backup goalkeeper. Nothing against Brad Jones, he's done a yeoman's job at the role in the last few years, but when your side is in the Champions League, you want someone a little better behind your top netminder should something go terribly wrong.
Enter Sergio Romero, most recently seen allowing Mario Gotze to score the winning goal in the World Cup Final. Well, that's a little harsh; Romero had been very, very good for Argentina in the tournament before that, and was arguably the best non-Manuel Neuer goalkeeper in the World Cup.
Romero spent last season with AS Monaco on loan from Sampdoria, and with just a year left on his contract the 27 year old wants to move on from the Italian outfit that holds his rights. According to Gianluca Di Marzio, Liverpool are seriously considering making a bid for Romero to shore up their depth in goal. A potential transfer fee isn't mentioned, but with Romero coming off a loan, having just a year left on his deal, and neither he nor his club interested in him staying in Sampdoria, it certainly won't be high.
It's a bit of an odd move perhaps, as you don't see many international #1's taking a backup role, but the market for goalkeepers is tough right now. Liverpool can offer him a good wage, a chance at Champions League minutes, and the knowledge that Brendan Rodgers has a record of giving minutes to players who work hard and impress him.
Romero is an excellent shot-stopper and commands his box decently, though his distribution is probably not where Liverpool fans would want it to be (albeit that's a high bar after being spoiled by Reina's distribution for years). He'd be a very good like-for-like backup for Simon Mignolet, and is good enough to push the Belgian very hard to keep his starting role.
Strong 1-2 combinations in net like Mignolet and Romero would represent used to be fairly rare, but that's started to shift this summer. Chelsea are keeping both Petr Cech and Thibaut Courtois for now, Bayern Munich have Neuer and Reina, Southampton just signed Frasier Forster to work with Artur Boruc, and Barcelona and Real Madrid both have two high quality goalkeepers. If this is Liverpool's way of staying ahead of a new trend before the market goes nuts, this isn't a bad way to do it at all.
