Sheffield United journalist Nathan Hemmingham has discussed the future of Liverpool defender Ben Davies following the defender’s first few months on loan at Bramall Lane.
The 26-year-old defender was initially brought in by Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp this past January in an attempt to help relieve some of the burden that the club had been put under in that position, following a string of injuries suffered by their central defenders.
He was on the verge of cracking the first team a couple of times, making the subs bench on occasion, but he was ultimately unable to make his way into the starting eleven.
Once the injured players returned, however, along with the addition of Ibrahima Konaté, the competition was even tougher, and in an attempt to help his development, the club shipped him off to the Championship side, where has since appeared six times in the league.
But what does his future hold beyond this campaign? Speaking about the matter on the Blood Red podcast, when asked by host Paul Wheelock whether Sheffield United would like to make the move permanent, Hemmingham revealed that he had spoken to the defender on the subject, and Davies seems to think that he could be in a position to make a run at the Liverpool first team come next summer:
“I spoke to Ben last week and he said, first and foremost, he’s not thinking about anything major, he’s just focusing on this season – it’s about playing again, playing to the best of his ability and trying to get back to the player he was at Preston when obviously Liverpool came in for him.
“And then in the summer, he wants to go back to Liverpool and try and see if the door’s open because, you don’t know what happens, anything can happen – what happens if there’s injuries again, anything can happen.
“So he wants to go back to Liverpool and see if he could have a good pre-season at Liverpool and see where the land lies and see what the crack is, see if he can try and impress the manager and then he will take it from there.”
TIF Thoughts on Nathan Hemmingham’s comments about Ben Davies at Liverpool…
Will Ben Davies be a success at Liverpool?
Yes
No
It does come across as ambitious on Davies’ part when it comes to his future, but unless he really does shine at Sheffield United this season to such a remarkable extent that it is above and beyond what is expected of him, it might ultimately end up being a pointless endeavour on his part.
If you take a look at the state of the Liverpool central defenders right now and how long left they have in their contracts, it’s hard to think that any of them are going to be moved on any time soon.
And whilst Hemmingham is right in that there might be another raft of injuries to befall the Liverpool backline, it would be an awfully big gamble for Davies to take to purely base his chances on making the first team on injuries to other players alone.
In other news: ‘That is unthinkable’ – James Pearce drops Mohamed Salah contract claim at LFC