1) Tiago Ilori
Tiago Ilori is a curious, curious case. We spent £7m on him in the summer of 2013, and when he arrived, Brendan Rodgers lauded his talent (ESPN).
“We were fortunate in that two became available, one that we had been tracking for a year in Tiago Ilori, a young talent but who can be a big talent,” he said at the time.
“He is 6′ 3”, super quick, power, can jump, and he just needs to adapt to the pace and physicality of the Premier League. He is one for the future, but he can be a really big talent.
“Sakho is 23 but he is an experienced player. He has senior international caps and looks an absolute monster in training. He is one who is ready for now and that is what we want.
“We had a chance to do that and protect the club for maybe the next ten years and that is what we have done.”
But two years later, Ilori has still not played a single minute of proper action for the first-team. This summer, he was left out of the pre-season touring squad to the bemusement of many after he impressed with Portugal Under-21s at the Euros.
Ilori is 22-years-old now, and is ready for first-team football, yet Rodgers clearly doesn’t rate him at all anymore – perhaps after seeing him in training. We can’t think of any other reason he’s been so underused, especially when Dejan Lovren’s been so poor -with Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho making defensive mistakes too.
It’ll be best for the youngster to leave the club on loan to a Premier League club, as perhaps that’s going to be his only chance of testing his mettle in English domestic football right now.
