Liverpool should look beyond Southampton for transfers
Published:
According to The Sun, Liverpool are looking into the possibility of bringing in Shane Long from Southampton for £8million.
The 28-year-old striker would be the fifth Saints player in two seasons to head to Anfield, with those previous signings enjoying mixed successes.
Rickie Lambert and Adam Lallana were the first players to make the switch, with the deals going through as the transfer window opened in the summer of 2014.
Lallana is still at Liverpool, but for Lambert his time in Merseyside wasn’t a successful period.
The England international only made seven Premier League starts for the Reds and played a total of 823 top-flight minutes.
For a player who had no problem finding the net throughout the Football League pyramid, the 33-year-old struggled in front of goal for the Reds.
The born and raised Liverpudlian only managed to get his name on the scoresheet three times across all competitions during his time at Anfield and it took him until January to get his first Premier League goal for his boyhood club, with a transfer to West Brom ending his time there after a season.
Meanwhile, Lallana has managed to keep his place as an England international, but has been substituted off 24 times in 36 league starts and is not the star Liverpool would have wanted when they invested over £20million in him.
The next Southampton signing came in the same window, with Dejan Lovren joining Lambert and Lallana for a fee of £17.7million, over £10million more than what the Saints had paid for him the summer before.
During his time at Anfield, Lovren has gone from being viewed as one of the best defenders in England to becoming a by-word for errors.
Nathaniel Clyne is the latest Saint to go marching into Anfield and has been a near ever present for the Reds this season.
However, this has coincided with Jurgen Klopp’s men sitting ninth in the table and letting in more goals than any other team in the top-half.
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