Liverpool have confirmed the signing of 20-year old Portuguese defender Tiago Ilori, who becomes the Reds' sixth signing of the summer.
The youngster - believed to have cost £7m - successfully passed a medical on Saturday, then watched from the stands on Sunday as Liverpool beat Manchester United at Anfield.
Discussing his move to LFC, Ilori told the official Liverpool FC Website:
"It feels great being a Liverpool player - coming to the Premier League has always been a dream for me.
"I'm going to try and achieve everything I can. I want to play as much as possible and we'll see what the future holds. I will give my all and try my best to help the team."
On LFC's history, and the Premier League:
"I know the history of the club and the Premier League is the best league in the world, in my opinion. Liverpool, have a great team and I think it's the place for me to be at the moment. I know there have been some great teams here in the past and the club has won a lot of trophies and I want to be a part of it."
On the fierce competition for places in central defence:
"For me, the competition is great because I'm a young player, I want to learn and I think that with the players in my position I can learn a lot"
On Jamie Carragher:
"Jamie Carragher was my inspiration. I used to watch him play as a young boy and I would have loved to have had the chance to train and play with him. I'd also like to one day maybe fill his place, too"
On beating Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield in the 2011 NextGen tournament
"It was incredible. It's one of the best stadiums I have ever played in. I'm definitely looking forward to walking out there as a Liverpool player. Everyone talks about the atmosphere. I'll feel proud when I get the chance to walk out the tunnel at Anfield"
Despite his 6'3 height, €7m-rated Ilori is one of the fasted players in the Portuguese League, and in tests conducted at the the club's Alcochete Academy, he recently broke the club's sprint records previously held by Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ilori states that he 'wants to play as much as possible', so it will be interesting to see how Rodgers handles the intense competition for places.
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
The youngster - believed to have cost £7m - successfully passed a medical on Saturday, then watched from the stands on Sunday as Liverpool beat Manchester United at Anfield.
Discussing his move to LFC, Ilori told the official Liverpool FC Website:
"It feels great being a Liverpool player - coming to the Premier League has always been a dream for me.
"I'm going to try and achieve everything I can. I want to play as much as possible and we'll see what the future holds. I will give my all and try my best to help the team."
On LFC's history, and the Premier League:
"I know the history of the club and the Premier League is the best league in the world, in my opinion. Liverpool, have a great team and I think it's the place for me to be at the moment. I know there have been some great teams here in the past and the club has won a lot of trophies and I want to be a part of it."
On the fierce competition for places in central defence:
"For me, the competition is great because I'm a young player, I want to learn and I think that with the players in my position I can learn a lot"
On Jamie Carragher:
"Jamie Carragher was my inspiration. I used to watch him play as a young boy and I would have loved to have had the chance to train and play with him. I'd also like to one day maybe fill his place, too"
On beating Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield in the 2011 NextGen tournament
"It was incredible. It's one of the best stadiums I have ever played in. I'm definitely looking forward to walking out there as a Liverpool player. Everyone talks about the atmosphere. I'll feel proud when I get the chance to walk out the tunnel at Anfield"
Despite his 6'3 height, €7m-rated Ilori is one of the fasted players in the Portuguese League, and in tests conducted at the the club's Alcochete Academy, he recently broke the club's sprint records previously held by Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ilori states that he 'wants to play as much as possible', so it will be interesting to see how Rodgers handles the intense competition for places.
Jaimie Kanwar
NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)
this mean that we can offload skretel.. for about 15mil then search for a midfielder in the coming hours..
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Brendan Rodgers is the only Liverpool manager since Roy Evans to realise that we have lacked pace in combination with ability at the back since our Halycon days of the 70's and 80's. There is real competition at Liverpool for places in the first team which haven't existed for years and Brendan Rodgers and his team have shown that you can buy decent players without spending fortunes.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see his development and how the club deploys him. I am a scratching my head a bit about how the whole CD position will pan out. Skrtel made an excellent comeback yesterday and Toure has played well with excellent positioning. Agger is often viewed as the star of our defense. Although he has made made a few mistakes in the first few games, it would seem an overreaction to drop him especially considering 3/3 clean sheets in the league and as he has been just made VC. A stable back four is often viewed as a vital component of a team. On the other hand with a fortune paid for Sakho, something has to give. thoughts?
ReplyDeleteGood signing and good prospec.
ReplyDeleteWell done all at LFC for all the transfer business - really feels like we're headed in right direction.
Who knows even the anti BR/FSG brigade might see some positives
i think iloris will play at cdm I don't know why just have this feeling
ReplyDeleteTiago Ilori is a massive talent and its a big boost having him in our club. the sad thing now is that Skrtel had a magnificent game yesterday, toure has been top class since hes joined and we've also got sakho now. Rodgers will have a real selection headache, but it looks as if now were actually a proper squad with every player contributing and its a good thing. theres a real togetherness in the team and if we can see out Swansea in our next league game we can go unbeaten for a long while with the return of Suarez. i just really hope we can now go for Yarmolenko, because that will be our squad complete. but i think everyone should thank FSG for the summer deals we've completed, i must say with Mignolet in goal im more confident, and we've also now got alot more depth. if we get Yarmolenko we can groom him into a ronaldo, like we've done with Sturridge. but he'll play from RW and still get goals and assits, and having contributions from all over the pitch is vital for success. but personally, i believe we have too much defenders. Toure, Sakho, Ilori, Skrtel, Agger, Kelly all comfortable at playing CB.....wonder how BR will deal with this 1
ReplyDeleteYNWA
I think sakho will replace toure , fsg philosophy . and skrtel and toure will be on the bench, I think iloris will be used at cdm
ReplyDeleteI also think sakho could be used at right back like carra was at left back because Rodgers said it will be a long time since Kelly will be ready.
and next season I expect skrtel to leave nad toure to become a fringe player
did anyone else look at the table today?
ReplyDeletefeels good doesn't it
I'd say it's more likely you see Wisdom go on loan although that may depend on the extent of Johnson's injury.
ReplyDeletei won't be carried away.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that when people have the nerve to criticise a manager they immediately become "anti-enter manager name here"? I've seen that with every manager since Houllier. God knows I've criticised or at least questioned our transfer dealings, well all but Touré, this summer but that doesn't mean I'm anti-Rodgers. As with every manager, I will commend him when I think he's done well and criticise decisions if I think they're not good. Disagreeing with our manager doesn't make someone anti that manager, the club or its owners. It just means that people, in this case myself, don't think the right decision has been made to take our club forward. Up to Rodgers and FSF to prove their doubters wrong. That's part and parcel of their jobs. I'm not gunning for you personally mate but this is not North Korea. We don't have a supreme leader who is beyond criticism. We just have a manager and owners who sometimes prove their doubters wrong, and sometimes prove them right. At the end of the day, every Liverpool supporter supports the club. There are no better or worse ones because of geographical location, footballing ideas, knowledge of our history or whatever. We're all equal as supporters of the same club and we're all individuals with different views whose opinions may be questioned and challenged, but not our loyalty.
ReplyDeleteSakho at right back, Johnson at left back, Toure and Agger in the middle. Although realistically Toure or Agger are going to be injured much of the time: so we will see Sakho at centre back and Cissokho at left back, though I think BR would rather play him as a wide attacker, with Johnson at right back. Wisdom and Skrtl will be the main cover.
ReplyDeleteLooks exciting prospect..but we have too many CDs now..
ReplyDeleteWow it's funny, where are all those fans that were hurling abuse at the owners and manager, saying we won't be signing anyone, the owners are money grabbers blah blah blah. Just want to say that at the moment, we are looking in very good shape, seems like there may even be a big surprise in store......Benzema for Suarez?????? Ohhhhh lol
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't want Skertel to be sold just yet, if they want him sold then it must be at the end of the season. He had a great game yesterday which I don't think could've been better for him. Lets hope Illori turns out to be a great signing and what LFC has craved at the back since Hypia's departure.
ReplyDeleteLevy is god:-
ReplyDelete"We've been asked how much money Southampton will make from the Gareth Bale transfer.
The answer is absolutely nothing.
Saints did have a 25% sell-on clause in the deal to sell Bale to Tottenham, but is was renegotiated when the south-coast club were in deep financial trouble.
As part of the new deal, Saints got Spurs goalkeeper Tommy Forecast.
Daniel Levy is some sort of arch-negotiator."
Also, the way he delayed Bale deal so that RM don't sell any players to Arsenal until then was a masterstroke.
Who needs DOF when you have owner like him?
Spurs apparently....they have Franco Baldini.....
ReplyDeleteThe signing of ilori seems to be a good idea since he is young and wont complain if he is not played regularly. He can cover at CB when needed if someone gets injured and he can also play at CDM. So far so good. But the signing of Sakho makes no sense to me. And for such a high price it would be stupid to make him sit on the bench. Also he left PSG because he was not playing regularly and i dont think he would have signed for us if he was not promised first team football. So he will certainly be one of our 2 first choice CB. Then the question is who is gonna be his partner? Will it be agger? He was just promoted as Vice Captain. Can Rodgers bench the vice captain? I dont think he can or will. So it would seem that the 2 who would be our first choice CB will be Agger and Sakho. But then what about Toure? Will he be relegated to the bench now after plaing so well for us in preseason and the first two matches of the new season? That would not be fair at all. And besides changing the defence like that will likely disturb the homeostasis at the back. The stability which we have started to built in defence will get disturbed. We may start leaking more goals. There is too many CB now. Agger, skretel, toure, sakho, and ilori. This is 5 players competing for just 2 places! Thats stupid imo. That money spent on sakho should have been used to buy a playmaker or a winger or a new defensive midfielder.
ReplyDeleteguess to buy good talent. I wouldn't be surprised if Levy is the one who negotiates contract.
ReplyDeletewhy all player join new club will say the same thing??? did they copy and paste?? hahahaaa
ReplyDeleteYup, Baldini has done a great spotters job and Levy, who strictly speaking is the chairman not the owner, is a tough, tough, negotiator. Mind it doesn't necessarily mean anything if the quality they've bought doesn't gel....as we saw yesterday....long may it continue and give us a better shot at our first goal of getting back in the top four.
ReplyDeleteRoy realised that so he signed.... Razor Ruddock?
ReplyDeleteOther way round mate, Sakho at LB, Johnson at RB
ReplyDeleteI think that's a very fair point you've made, though you must admit some people do rather take a very negative view at times and seem determined to refuse to give any credit at all ....and to be clear I'm not referring to you here. The Sakho thing is a case in point, with some demanding we need defensive cover and complaining FSG aren't spending enough in this window....and then moaning we are paying too much for him, FSG can't get decent value etc. etc. We've now made a number of significant signings but still some are banging on about "Why Moses? Get Yarmolenko!" It's simple really, money. We are building something solid here, it takes a bit of time, some fans just want everything now it seems...but hey we aren't Chelsea.
ReplyDeleteI think Touré will disagree with your assessment :-)
ReplyDeleteTrue but even the really really negative ones are happy when we beat Man United and disappointed if we lose to Swansea next. I'm not casting the first stone here either. I've, for example, questioned JK's loyalty in the heat of the moment, because of his persistent criticism of Suarez. Which was also wrong.
ReplyDeleteSakho can also play LB, that's another reason he was brought in as he can cover two roles.
ReplyDeleteAs left back we just brought another player in Ally Cissokho. And we already have Enrique, and Glen Johnson also can play there...
ReplyDeleteI'd go far as to say virtually the whole planet is happy we beat Man Utd! :-) Personally I'd question Suarez's loyalty before anything...but then if he knuckles down and helps us get back in the CL I'm sure most will forgive him...and if not and he bags us £60 million when sold then we can all start arguing with each other again about the best way to re-invest it! ;-)
ReplyDeletei don't think johnson will be sideline for many days.. he will be alright. we don't have enough midfield we should reinforce by adding either a left m or right m
ReplyDeleteToo many? Dude, we've had 4 players injured in less than a week!
ReplyDeleteOur first team can be depleted in a single match with injuries and, if we don't have adequate quality in the cover, then we're going to have a really difficult season.
Historically, all the teams which have won the Premier league, have had big, strong squads. We needed quality in abundance. We have that now.
let the defence sort itself out no reason to worry , we end up with a strong defence regardless
ReplyDeletelooks like shay given is the best we have to look forward to
Doh.
ReplyDeleteNeither will I, one game at a time, next game against Swansea, which we're more than capable of winning and we'll still be top.
ReplyDeleteWhatever anyone says we still need suarez , he created more chances then anyone else and we have struggled to do that , moreover coutinho is becoming increasingly isolated by other teams suarez will give him that space he needs , btw aspas has really struggled
ReplyDeleteTotally agree, well said.
ReplyDeleteYep, was saying something similar before yesterday- Lots of top players doesn't guarantee a good team- Which is why Anzhi were getting rid of Eto'o Willian etc .
ReplyDeletePlus too many top midfielders, at least 8 or 9 for 3 spots is a recipe for unhappy players in WC year , and possibly may breed resentment in the existing group who will be moved aside for the new players..
O yes.
ReplyDeleteI think Anzhi also realised that a lot of 'em were there for the stupid money on offer, which was the club's own fault, they've gone over to nurturing local talent now I believe. Re. Spurs...yeah hopefully for us it'll be an unhappy ship....a lot resting on AVB's shoulders now in that respect.
ReplyDelete2 out of the 3 players you mentioned are injured. Rodgers doesn't really like Johnson at left back either as he's stronger on the right.
ReplyDeleteI think you can consider out transfer dealings done for now. I guess Aspas will become our third striker option in the middle and that's why Borini went on loan.
ReplyDeleteif we got mata i think we can challenge for a top 2 if not for the title
ReplyDeletewith borini going on loan we could do with another attacker before the window closes ,heres hoping
ReplyDeleteThey are very tough at home. I wouldn't be surprised if we draw/
ReplyDeleteI guess its done. BR insisted no more signing after trio
ReplyDeleteBrendan Rodgers is trying to sign juan mata and that's probably why he let borini leave
ReplyDeletesturridge,suarez,mata,coutinho,gerrard,lucas,johnson,sakho,aggger,enrique and mignolet
ReplyDeletewow then bench
aspas,moses/sterling,henderson,alberto/allen,iloris,toure and whoever
"But then what about toure?"good shout,i think he should be experienced enough to know that having someone of his calibre waiting in the wings for when needed,is as important as 1st x1.
ReplyDeleteActually I agree with your points. My concerns are that some posters on here seem bent on either not being constructive or unwilling to give people a chance. An example being those who are often anti FSG simply because they 1) follow a certain strategy 2) aren't as rich Abramovitch 3) happen to be American.
ReplyDeleteAlso agree with points made by gwhizz
Are they gonna be injured the whole season?? i doubt so.
ReplyDeletelets just hope we do not sell anybody then
ReplyDeleteWe've had a 25 million bid for mata rejected (Radio marca)
ReplyDeleteThink we should be ready for Madrid to bid for Suarez. Would be pretty foolish to let him leave now without a ready made replacement (Damiao?).
ReplyDeleteThink a bid will come but it will be rejected.
I for one have been one of those guys that have criticised FSG for not spending money on quality players, now i will eat my words and apologise (or not) halfway through the season when i have seen enough and i am convinced that these guys have been good signings, i personally think that some people on here think that we (who have criticised FSG ) should admit we were wrong, yes we have had a great start to the season and the players say the team spirit and confidence is there, hey that's great i'm TRULY happy, but that does not mean that we were all wrong only time will tell.
ReplyDeleteWe have won 3 games all by 1-0 margins yes we have not conceded which is great. I like the others are just worried that maybe we might leave ourselves a little short in the creativity and goal finishing department.
Now, yes we have Moses and Aspas, Alberto (attacking minded players) so far Moses is yet to be seen Aspas has good movement of the ball but is very light weight, as for Alberto not seen enough of him (i really don't rate the pre-seasons to much, sorry not quality sides IMO) Cortinho has talent there is no doubt but are we putting to much on a young boy?.
So yes we are happy at the moment of course but just remember to win a football match you must score more than your opponent and at the moment we have only because our defence has held on but we die off pretty quick too or should i say take the foot off the pedal and it's a long season and we are putting a lot of pressure on some young shoulders, maybe someone in to help in the middle would have been nice that's all YNWA.
PS too many people are/were overhyping Coutinho, won't be too long now before people start slagging him off if his performances don't improve.
ReplyDeleteHe is a tidy player but not amazing like some people were shouting.
I think he will grow as the season progresses. Maybe the role behind the striker is his best position.
As for Borini, I can't see it happening here IMO. Hope he has a stormer at Sunderland.
Hate that we have the 2 week interationals!!! Our momemtum was great!
Last time we were top of the league before the break was in 08-09 when we did really well. Hopefully we can keep up and do well too.
Probably not but remember, Toure is getting on so injuries take longer to heal, Agger hasn't got the best history with injuries, Kelly... Skrtle has been a bit unreliable at times and could be sold. So the incoming players are definitely needed.
ReplyDeleteteams are focusing all on coutinho
ReplyDeletethat is why suarez coming back could help
and maybe mata?
not less than 100mn
ReplyDeleteHistory lesson!!! Souness brought Ruddock in 93!
ReplyDeleteI think Llori could also provide backup to Lucas if need be, certainly has the pace and tactical awareness.
ReplyDelete