26 Jul 2016

Done Deal: Liverpool officially confirm 'transfer' for 'wonderful' £55k-a-week Euro 2016 sensation

It's official: after months of speculation over his future, Joe Allen is no longer a Liverpool player.

According to an official statement from LFC:

"Joe Allen has today completed a permanent transfer to Stoke City. Everyone at Liverpool wishes Joe the best of luck in his future career".

The transfer fee is reportedly £13m, which seems a bit on the low side for a player who made the Euro 2016 team of the tournament. However, Allen - hailed last week by Jurgen Klopp as a 'wonderful player' - has only one year left on his contract, so it makes sense to sell now rather than risk a free transfer next summer.

In my view, Stoke is a good move for Allen. He'll probably be one of the first names on the team-sheet, and Mark Hughes is a fairly progressive manager whose teams try and play positive, passing football.

Allen's experience at Anfield is a cautionary tale for multi-functional players. Allen arrived as a man without a position, and after struggling to become a first-team regular, he left the same way, having failed to excel in a specific role.

Yes, Allen can do a job at DM; he can be decent deep-lying playmaker, and he can do okay playing a more advanced role (as he did at times under Klopp), but he's not the first (or even second) name on the team-sheet for any of those positions.

And that's how it often goes with multi-functional players. With any luck, Mark Hughes will have a specific, well-defined role in mind for Allen, which he'll be able to make his own. If not, then history will repeat itself at Stoke City.

Good luck, Joe!

^ Reportedly on £55k-a-week at LFC


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