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The 2013 calendar year has been unquestionably kind to Liverpool in the transfer market. Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho arrived in January to help the club finish the 2012-2013 season well, and summer dealings saw Simon Mignolet, Kolo Toure, and Mamadou Sakho join to kickstart one of the best starts to a season in recent memory. Business coming in and going out has proved largely successful, with only one or two pockmarks on an otherwise successful year.
Now Brendan Rodgers and his staff will be expected to do some replicating; expecting a window exactly like January's might be a bit much, but their summer transfers indicated that they've got a plan in place, and that plan appears to be one that's capable of creating a successful, sustainable squad. Rodgers is quick to point out the need for players with a certain type of mentality, one that's born out of frustrating at limited opportunities and, in a handful of cases, being written off as not worthy of a regular spot in the starting eleven.
If rumors ahead of the coming January window are to be believed--and why would they not?!?--the club are continuing that trend, with Liverpool set to pursue Chelsea's Ryan Bertrand and Barcelona's Martin Montoya. We heard a bit about the former earlier in the week, but links to the latter picked up steam yesterday, as a number of outlets ran with a story that Ian Ayre was headed to Spain to inquire about the availability of the versatile and underutilized Montoya.
As always, we're talking rumors masquerading as news, so appropriate caution is advised on both ends of the spectrum depending on your reaction to the supposed interest. Both would suit Liverpool just fine; in the case of Montoya that's surely an understatement, as he would fill the need for depth on both sides and prove an upgrade in terms of quality. The same could be said for Bertrand, albeit with slightly less hype attached, as he's proven dependable and solid when given the opportunity.
For now there's little else to discuss other than hypotheticals. And videos, always videos. Most importantly, though, it's our first warning shot that January is coming, and with it the requisite excitement/panic/fear/mania we're all bound to experience.
Video by MrBoywunder
