7 Jan 2013

LFC close to signing £6m star with better strike rate than Suarez. Good news...?

After a series of protracted negotiations, Liverpool are reportedly on the verge of signing Blackpool winger Tom Ince.

According to reports over the weekend, the Reds are 'close to reaching an agreement with Blackpool', who have 'lowered their price from £8 million. A deal is expected to be completed at 'around the £5-6m mark'.

In his pre-Mansfied press conference on Friday, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers revealed that no progress had been made on the Ince deal, but confirmed that there would probably be one more signing during January:

"We're not going to have a lot of money to do anything in the window. There might be one other transfer, but there's not much more business to be done".

Ince is on fire for Blackpool this season:

* 13 goals and 10 assists in 25 appearances.
* Goal every 159 minutes (1 every 1.7 games)
* Goal/assists every 90 mins (1 every game)
* 38% conversion rate (Suarez: 36%/Sterling: 20%)

Who wouldn't want another player at the club with a similar conversion rate to Suarez?

On Saturday, Seasiders boss Michael Appleton urged Liverpool to increase their offer for the youngster:

"Liverpool made an offer two weeks ago but we have not received anything since. It was a case of, 'That's not enough. You'll have to do better if you want him'. Until that changes, he will stay here."

Speaking to the Blackpool Gazette this week, Ince's team-mate Kevin Phillips urged the youngster to wait until the summer to move away. He said:

“If I was giving him advice, I’d tell him [Ince] to stay at Blackpool. If he continues producing the goods like he has he’ll get his big move in the summer.”

“It would be hard to turn down someone offering silly money, but from a footballing point of view, Tom would probably benefit more from staying here for the rest of the season"


Liverpool legend Jan Molby believes Ince could be a decent signing. He told the Liverpool Echo:

"I saw a fair bit of Ince when he was in the reserves at Liverpool and he appears to have added to his game during his time at Blackpool. Leaving to go and play ‘real’ football has certainly done him good.



Jaimie Kanwar


75 comments:

  1. Did you compare his strike rate with that of Suarez at Ajax?

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  2. Im not sure why would I do that? Does Suarez play for Ajax?

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  3. If he could replicate that form for Liverpool, and didnt cost more than £6m then go for it.

    Just a shame we let him go for free.

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  4. The usual overrated British thing..

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  5. Truely LFC didn't need to bring back Tom Ince.No matter if LFC still want to sign him back.But i hope something is changing at foward system playing will put many goal and strongest.

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  6. Obviously he is highly unlikely to replicate anything close to those stats in the prem but he should be a good addition to the squad. I hope the deal goes through.

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  7. Jonjo Shelvey has scored 6 goals in 10 games for Blackpool, but didn't look as if he'd ever score in his past few games for us. Shelvey isn't Ince, but we should be very careful to draw any conclusion from those kind of stats. The Championship is an entirely different animal than the Premier League.

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  8. Don't understand why we are not after a left back when time and again we have Downing playing or Johnson covering. Either Robinson is good enough in which case he should be playing (based on yesterdays performance i would have to say this isn't the case) Or we should be in the market for one. For me Danny Rose on loan at Sunderland would represent a good buy. 

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  9. What reports are these? Daily Fail? Daily Star? I wouldnt pay much attention to Ince and his dad!

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  10. To be honest, I don't think Suarez's strike rate is that fantastic to begin with. Sure he's our top scorer but he shoots at goal around 8 times per game as opposed to once or twice for the other players. I've seen many games where his stats were a low 10% even for shots on goal, let alone that he scored. Suarez's best position is with a goal scorer in front of him or next to him. It works for Uruguay with Cavani and it worked for Ajax with Huntelaar. He'll still get you 10 goals a season from there, maybe more, but as a team we'll score a lot more. As for Ince, to expect him to do in the Premiership what he does in the Championship is a bit naive imo. He'll be the same opportunistic player running at defences but with a higher level defenders up against him. Never the less, the attitude and the talent is there so once he get used to the league I'm sure we'll have a player in him. It may take till next season before we really see that though.

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  11. I think we should sign Calton Cole, great player. Maybe part ex him with Suarez, and also bring back Carroll. Get rid of Borini and bring in Routledge and Fletcher from sunderland. do away with Agger and get Ashley walters from swansea., quality defender.

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  12. tom ince 5m is that after the 35% or do we pay 3.25m cos adam johnson was better at 10m and downing will never be a messi but better than pennant ,but we have no targetman so we pass not cross and downing has uped his games in the last 5 games but sterling outshone ince in the reserves and has adapted to the prem. ince is a gamble

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  13.  we never let him go he ran his contract down like the brat he is and left with daddys words in his ears

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  14. Again, a good young player with plenty of potential. He's quick, intellegent and hardworking. Pace is critical, and could share games with Stirling due to their age and rest periods etc... He's inexpensive and a BR type player. We are lacking experience in the squad outside of the first team though. Experienced left back required; I would go for an older and more mature player.

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  15. How close is he to re-joint LFC? let me know if it's not a milestone rumour.

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  16. not quick enough for prem league at this stage. would  like to see the teams against which he has scored as a bottom half team with blackpool. interesting option needs alot of work and 6 million is really the absolute most we should pay for this ham

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  18. oops, supposed to ba a facepalm: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facepalm 

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  19. nice another average signing champions league here we come

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  20. Are there not any players in the championship with a better conversion ratio than that? 

    We should surely go for them as they would guarantee goals in the prem right? A lot more than Sterling anyway ;)

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  21. Another useless senseless buy, probably the last one as well for this t.w, really hoped we would get at least one major class striker but didnt happen, rodgers is clueless no doubt, he thinks these two hes buying will take us to cl ?

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  22. Cavani often gets played out wide for Uruguay (not always a wide forward role with freedom, sometimes just a standard wide role) and ends up sometimes doing more defensive work than Suarez or Forlan, with Suarez the main striker or narrow-wide forward and Forlan/Ramirez in the supporting role. And their respective goalscoring ratio for Uruguay reflects that. Out of the trio, Cavani has usually been the main suspect that is shifted into makeshift positions. At the Olympics, Suarez and Cavani played as a front pair but they were pants. Cavani's best role is as the main striker but a lot of his games for Uruguay are rarely as the main striker. So I can't agree that it works for Uruguay what you say, as they rarely use them like that, let alone whether it works or not.

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  23. Blackpool is playing tug a war game to push the price into the highest level.

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  24. Adam Johnson? meh. Becoming like SWP he is, in terms of the way his career is panning out. Potential > moved to big club too soon> becoming rather ordinary. I don't like the way he has developed since playing on the right (he looked good at Boro attacking down the left), far too predictable his play as he doesn't have much to his game when coming inside. Tries to play like fellow winger Robben does from the right but he is poor at it. I wouldn't have wanted Johnson at £10m. 

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  25. I stand corrected. Ajax still stands though :-)

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  26. Jonjo is a legend in the making

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  27. Yep, from the few games I saw, he did very well in the narrow wide forward role with Huntelaar through the middle. Though I'm unsure on him as a central forward playing behind another striker, i.e., in relation to whether it brings out the best in him, as I haven't seen him play there much. 

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  28. Blackpool can say goodbye to any hopes of making the play offs, if they sell him, me thinks. Already had to put up with Matt Phillips being injured, their other good young wide player.

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  29. You'd have to compare Ince's strike rate to Suarez' in a comparable league. Ince is good against defenders not good enough for the Premier league; no comparison can be made unless its against Suarez playing in a second tier season.

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  30. Doesn't like like that at the moment.

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  31. If Jimmy Traore can win the Champions League, so can Tom Ince :-)

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  32. if the kid has the same fight in his heart as his dad had through his footy days lfc have to get him back , lets not forget lfc have let many a top prospect leave , didnt rooney play for lfc kids ?

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  33. Rooney has played for Liverpool schoolboys. I believe that they have nothing to do with Liverpool F.C.

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  34. http://www.liverpoolschoolsfau11s.co.uk/History/top%20scorers.html

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  35. True, but he was only able to run down the contract because of our inability to give him any kind of first team chances. He was clearly one of the best in our academy and he was contantly being ignored while chances were given to flanno, kelly, etc. I'll bet that if he signs he'll be demanding a first team place. He holds all the cards in this situation because if he stays and continues to produce, we'll have to start competing with ManU and City in the summer and that's going to be a lost cause

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  36. That and a DM. While we do have flanno and kelly who can play LB, we have nobody who can play DM. I sound like a broken record but if Lucas goes down, then we are going to be in A LOT of trouble.

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  37. Hahaha! That was good. Its just crazy to think he has a CL winners medal while RVP, Aguero, Podolski and Hazard haven't just to name a few

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  38. I do agree with this. Ince looks good, and I for one will be happy if we sign him. Like you though I think we lack experience in the team, which is why we are still inconsistant. There will always be those games where things don`t go to plan, and having experience can help to deal with it. Arsenal have had the same problem for years, great set of young players, but slip up on games where it doesn`t go to plan.

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  39. But that is Football, Gerrard doesn`t have a Prem League medal, but many many worse players do does. Football is a team thing, and the so some good players wont win stuff, while other poor players will

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  40. Suarez in the Championship would probably score as many goals as Messi in the Primera Liga.  You cant compare strike rates at all.

    What I dont understand about the Ince deal is the 35% sell on clause.  If Blackpool were to sell Ince to say Man U for £6million, then £2.1m comes to us and Blackpool get £3.9m

    If Liverpool have offered £4m as reported, then surely LFC should waver the 35% sell on clause.

    It could be that Blackpool's chairman rates Ince higher than £6million. 

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  41. Very true. I'm starting to wonder whether we even have a scouting team tbh. So far we have only bought first team players rodgers has worked with before and now we go for ince who was ours not too long ago. There are some high profile free agents that would have solved most of our problems (Llorient, Hotby (going to spurs), and Moussa Sissoko) to name a few. I know we're not where we used to be but these players are attainable imo. Turan is another I think would do better than ince purely based on his expeience in bigger leagues. He's the modern creative player in the mould of mata and silva that we need to add more gule and clear cut chances to our attack. But I think its clear that while BR knows how to tika taka, his inability to attract players that can effectively impliment it is worrying especially when the club's history does half of the convincing for you

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  42. And it may always stay like that for one Lukas Podolski. The others you mention may well win one or two at some stage during their careers.

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  43. Suarez in a top team in the La Liga (or how do they call the premier Spanish league this season, Primera Liga or Primera Division) may just score nearly as many goals as Messi. But you're right, strike rates are hardly comparable, at times even within a league (just ask one Fernando Torres).

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  44. That’s true. But it's funny tho because on the flip-side Podolski may come closer than any of them when he was in the 2010 final with Bayern. Only time will tell I suppose as Djimi polishes off his silverwear :)

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  45. I actually don't think that our squad is that inexperienced. We have many seasoned pros. Reina, Enrique, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson, Gerrard, Suarez, Downing, even Lucas. In our squad we have the player who has won possession more often than any other in the League so far this season (Allen), the one with most shots (Suarez), second and third placed when it comes to creating chances (Gerrard and Suarez), most assists (Gerrard), joint most clear cut chances created (Suarez), fourth most passes and final third passes (Gerrard). While all of this looks a bit one-sided (or rather two sided with Gerrard and Suarez being very prominent), this doesn't look like the stats of an inexperienced team. If we carry on like this, I'd expect us much higher up the league come May.

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  46. do you need a doctor?

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  47. Podolski wasn't with Bayern anymore in 2010. He had failed on the big stage that is Bayern.

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  48. You're right. I'm dumb. And I definitely knew that.

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  49. That doesn't make you dumb. Can you name anybody who knows everything and never gets anything wrong? I, too, had to look it up as I wasn't sure whether he still was with them in 2010.

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  50. Is this some kind of Rorschach test?

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  51. Haha, thanks. The only reason why I knew he left Bayern in 09 was because I really wanted us to sign him before he joined Koln cause I thought Bayern didn't use him well and, if I remember correctly, they bought him on the cheap <10mil pounds. Must have just got the 08-09 and 09-10 seasons mixed up

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  52. Hey great stats you posted showing our team has experience nice to see u staying positive as ever.
    Ps. Has anteater anything to do with classic bikes?

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  53. I'm glad we've never signed him. Live in Germany and he has never convinced me. Big fish in a small pond at Köln. My best friend is a season ticket holder at Bayern München. He, too, was never impressed to say the least.

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  54. No, it hasn't got anything to do with bikes. Anteaters don't cycle :-) Is there an anteater bike brand?

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  55. Ah well, you had me turning my monitor over as I wanted to know if there is anything to be seen.

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  56. This looks like a team reliant on 2 of its 3 experienced attacking players. If we had more, we'd be more consistent and higher up the league. Its all well and good playing Suso, Sterling etc but their return is very little. We need more experienced attacking players to step up and take the weight off Suarez and Gerrard. Downing looks like he's stepping up and if Sturridge hits the ground running, we'll be in a decent position, but we'd still only have a very aged Gerrard as our sole experienced attacking midfielder.

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  57. Rodgers has never worked with Sturridge before. Sturridge was still at City when BR left Chelsea.

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  58. BRs scouting appointments in Aug, Dave Fallows and Barry Hunter, were both from city and is the reason why Sturridge came most probably. And that adds to my further confusion that we would hire two scouts with similar backgrounds to search for new talent. Both being english and having a background at city only adds to the boxed nature BR is living in when it comes to transfers. "young and british" is not working, imo, because england is just not performing on the international level and none of his tranfer targets have been exciting in the slightest. Benitez's stature, hate it or love it, gave him the ability to bring in greats like Torres, Mach, and Reina while also finding gems like Arbeloa and Xabi who people really hadnt heard of before. He favored the Spanish players and it worked because the Spanish national team was on the rise. I understand that we are not where we used to be, but even Spurs and Newcastle (who, on aveage, tend to finish in the upper mid table spots) still managed to buy much more exciting players that we are bringing in now. Why? The only reason has to be the ineffectiveness of our managers tranfser ability/equity and a poor scouting team. Now I'm not telling BR to neglect english players or only buy spanish, but the man needs to realize that LFC's club stature should be able to attract the Papiss Cisse's, Michus, Felanni's of the world. Bargain gems that every scout seems to be spotting but ours

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  59. And before people claim Tottenham have always been at the top of the table. From 2000-2010 their average finish was 9th place. They have only recently become a top four challenging side thanks to harry houdini

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  60. Ince coming back is good.

    The Guvnor's potential mouthing off on TV again is not a nice thought.

    Anyone recall when it was that he discussed his son's contract talks on TV?

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  61. I would assume the £4 million is after our "cut"

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  62. no karl oyston is a minge bag thats why holloway left and his dad is a rapest thats what we are havin to do bussiness with. to be left with egg on our face payin 6 mill 4 aplayer we already had

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  63. what ive seen he is light years a head of sterling. sell rs to the highest bidder mark my words this kid is trouble .the next pennant in the makin . and will end up a waist of space.for fucks sake 18 and drivin a bentley a court case pendin rumor has it already has a couple of kids . this kid spells trouble . sell asap

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  64. stering turns up at training with all his family. the word around melwood is the jackson 5 have arrived .

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  65. jk owen oyston is not a convicted rapest then? he got 6 years nick!!!!

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  66. Yeah, you're right. Sorry about that. I've unedited your comment. I have to say, your posts crack me up. Keep up the good work :-)

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  67. I dont understand how your a brat if you let your contract run out? Surely thats what most footballers should do really? See their contract out and move one. if he had signed a new one then kicked up a fuss then he would be a brat? When a players is 'bought' you are buying the players contract out too.

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  68. MMM because your comparing Saurez that with his PREMIERSHIP strike rate to ince with his championship strike rate.Why not sign me i have scored 15 goals this season so far from midfield for my sunday league side ? Didnt Borrini score goals when he played in the championship for blackpool ?Does that mean he will score lots of goals in the premiership ? Were throwing money away again like normal if you ask me.We let him go cause he was that good and now we want to spend 5-6 mill on getting him back.Is ince better than ba ? is he better than adabeyour?is he better than berbatov ? the reason i ask is because at that price thats what other teams are getting therefore i dont think he will be a good buy.Hope im wrong

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  69. We did not let Ince go, we could not offer him first team football at the time so he wouldn't sign a new contract and left for a tribunal fee once his contract expired.

    Ince will cost 5-6 - the 35% sell on clause that was added by the tribunal when he moved to Blackpool. This will mean the final price we will actually pay will be around 4million max. This is a lower transfer fee than the other players you have mentioned (roughly half actually) and his wages will be around 30-40k per week and not 80-100k per week.

    Let for example say he was given 40k per week (i would expect this to less) and Ba is on 90k per week (rumored wage he has been given at Chelsea) then over a four year contract that is an extra 10Million in wages, so realistically you are comparing two players one who will cost between 13-14 million more.

    There is more to a players cost than transfer fee.

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  70. Flanno and Kelly etc played as full backs which we did not have cover for at the time so injuried pushed them into the team. Ince is a winger.

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  71. you must be on drugs mate. Anyone at the of Jonjo is already making things happen... players like jack Welshere  already a star. i will never see Jonjo being anywhere close to a starting line up player

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  72. hey I am not a fan of sturridge but since he has joined lfc he has my support he is one of us now YNWA as long as he tries to improve n play for the team he will make the ability is there. As for tom ince championship player cant see him improvin lfc so am have to say no to this one for 6m we could get Iago Aspas from celta vigo virtually unknown in england but if u watched la liga you would know what a cracking player he is the spanish league is littered with gems on the cheap sometimes i wish we still had rafa

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  73. True, but how how many years have we lacked in the winger department? I mean, we were using Kuyt as a makeshift winger when he his name as a central striker. With an obvious lack of ability on the wings, shouldn’t we have given ince a chance out there? Ince leaving is only our fault because there were opportunities to introduce him into the first team but we opted for make-shift in kuyt instead of natural in ince

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  74. Ince was not ready at the time, He has improved alot at Blackpool. 

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  75. Not sure about that. I would watch reserve matches and it was clear the boy was good enough. There were calls for the manager to bring him into the first team from fans and pundits on lfc.tv but for some reason, that never happened. Same story with nemeth and now pacheco

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