Liverpool have completed the signing of Danny Wilson from Rangers. The 19 year-old centre back joined for £2 million, which may rise to £5 million based on appearances. Wilson is Liverpool’s fourth summer signing, after Milan Jovanovic, Jonjo Shelvey and Joe Cole.
While I am all for bringing in young players to develop, is this really the kind of signing we should be making right now? Centre back is one of the few positions where Liverpool have real strength in depth, with Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Sotirios Kyrgiakos to choose from, with Martin Kelly and Daniel Ayala waiting to break into the first team.
With Emiliano Insua likely to leave for Fiorentina, the Reds will be left with no senior left back. Liverpool’s first competitive game is a week from now, and it will be tough to get one in before then. The club’s financial problems have been well documented, and even though it is only an initial £2 million, when we apparently cannot match Stoke City’s bid for a potential signing, shouldn’t we be making sure we have the players we need before supplementing the squad with youngsters? As well as this, Wilson is somewhat of an unknown quantity. He only made his professional debut last year, and with all due respect to the Scottish Premier League, it isn’t exactly the strongest league in the world, and there is a huge gulf in class between the SPL and its English counterpart. One could even argue that the Championship is a step up in quality from the Scottish top flight, and Wilson may find himself out of his depth.
On the other hand, Wilson has shown he may have the potential to be a great addition to the squad. He won both the Scottish FWA Young Player of the Year and the Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year awards, and at £2 million he could prove to be an absolute steal. He is very young and has plenty of time to develop, but I’m not sure we should be planning for the future while we have so many problems in the present.
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Silly remarks!Some of the greatest LFC players came directly from Scotland so should we have ignored them at the time as being “unworthy”?
Stupid boy!!
sean,
This guy caomes recomended by King Kenny. He will be first choice CB within the next 2-3 years. Rangers rate him as already 10 times better than Sotirios Kyrgiakos ever was and at this price will prove to be a steal i am sure.
he also has champions league experience with rangers after being thrown in at the deep end. calm, assured, cultured. plays like a 27 year old
A bit of a naive article! Just because he doesnt play in La Liga or the PL doesnt make him a bad player. Why not, for that price, why not?
He is in face quite highly rated.
Seriously, just be happy we are bringing in players of any description
That was meant to say “in fact”
Good point Blindside.Scottish players tend to be tough and no-nonsense which is exactly what you want from a future CB.Plus not likely to get injured playing in Euro or World cup 🙂 no offence.
he didn’t just play in the SPL, he was the youngest player to make an appearance in the Champions League last season…
i agree with blindside, none of us know how much we have to spend either…ur just speculating, and if this lad turns out to be a world beater then basically ur wrong…every club takes a chance on young players
wow… that’s the first negative post I have read since we signed Joe Cole. While you bring up some valid points about the judgement on some of these decisions. Can’t we all just revel in the moment, I for one was actually feeling quite happy with all the positivity that was surrounding Anfield. So please just let it go…. the whining can start when the season starts… (hope fully not at all though)
YNWA
This site has some of the worst, most ill informed fan articles I’ve ever read.
Do your homework on the kid.
in a few years time, carragher will have retired, possibly kyriokos, leaving skrtel, agger, kelly(who is a good right back aswell), ayala, wilson
Actually, we have an improvised, but not bad, left-back in Agger for the time being. Kelly showed he can play fairly well in right back, and will possibly be Johnson’s understudy, along with Carra. I think Wilson has been brought to learn from Carra and eventually replace him on the team. Too bad none of our youth leftbacks show any real promise. They seem solid, but unable to add to a premiership side. I understand your concern, but we shouldn’t dismiss an opportunity to sign a possible future starter if we have the chance, because we need to invest in other areas. I think Roy will manage to do both. Things are looking better than I’d have imagined when Rafa was sacked. Now, let’s sell Mascherano and buy some real players!!!
One key reason we have signed him now, rather than waiting for next year when he would be out of contract, is that Scottish players are not regarded as ‘home-grown’ players for the purposes of the new squad rules. The rules state that to qualify as a ‘home-grown’ player, you have to spend 3 years between the ages of 16 and 21 at an English or Welsh club. Wilson is now 18, so if we sign him now, he should qualify as a home-grown player in 3 years time. If we sign him next year it would be too late for this to happen. Trust this makes sense…!!!
Have you watched this guy at all last season……he was immense in the Champions League….
Why is it only negative things mentioned on this stupid live 4 liverpool blogsh!t. Wilson I feel will be a class act for the future. We have a manager who gives straight answers and is honest, not elusive and complicated. We have a few new players and more to come, we are selling fringe players and we had a good result against Grasshoppers considering it was the under 18’s playing. Lets be positive for the future.
“Centre back is one of the few positions where Liverpool have real strength”.
Starts in the league last year:
Agger: 23
Skrtl: 16
Kyrgiakos: 13
Certainly the younger of the two spent a lot of time on the physio bench last season, which was particularly problematic when Carragher was required to cover for Johnson for a while. I would say that centre back is where Liverpool have *physical weakness* in depth, so any signing that might help mitigate that is a very good thing.
Drama queen
I’m referring to the author by the way
Are you Kanwar in disguise?
As mentioned by a previous poster, given the state the club is in, we should be delighted about all of these signings, particuarly young, british talent like Wilson.
Furthermore, it should be noted that Purslow has moved decisively to bring in new players, and sell the rubbish off – he won’t get any credit from the conspiracy theorist wingnuts who think he’s out to ruin the club rather than run it, but i for one am impressed.
If he gets Nando to commit for next year, sells masch – and buys a world class left back and striker with the money raised -he’ll have achieved a great deal to ensure club stability and maintain squad quality for any prospective buyers coming down the line. Good work imho.
This is bad journalism. If a talented player becomes available we should be in the hunt to sign him. Insua has already left or do you not keep up to date with current affairs, maybe you think Benayoun still plays for us as well. Just because you know nothing about Danny Wilson doesn’t mean he is an unknown quantity, this kid has played in the champions league and played well. In future if you are going to write articles at least have the decency to do a little research