Transfer deadline day: Liverpool's defensive chase as exciting as it gets to end quiet window

Preston North End's Ben Davies (left) and Reading's Lucas Joao (right) battle for the ball at Deepdale this month. Photo: Barrington Coombs/PA

The impact of the pandemic on football’s finances is becoming clear on transfer deadline day as even Premier League giants scramble around for late loan deals and keep their cheque books firmly closed.

Going into the final day of the window, only eight out of 20 Premier League clubs had signed anyone at all this month, and it soon became clear that the big-money deals of years gone by were not going to happen.

Arsenal, for instance, have been more intent on saving money by clearing out their squad than on adding to the arrival of Martin Odegaard from Real Madrid, with Joe Willock and Ainsley Maitland-Niles made available (the latter set for a loan move to West Brom) and Shkodran Mustafi's contract paid off.

As a result, the biggest focus was on Liverpool’s desperate late attempt to bring in a defender to ease their defensive crisis.

Their £2m chase of Preston North End defender Ben Davies, a Championship ‘steady Eddie’ who you cannot imagine being on the radar in any other season, looks like being deadline day’s biggest story if, as expected, it goes through; and that doesn’t begin to compare to stories of the past. Think Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Arsenal, Luis Suarez to Liverpool, and Lucas Moura to Tottenham.

The fact that young Liverpool defender Sepp van den Berg is expected to head on loan to Preston as part of the deal makes you wonder who got the best end of the agreement; but the champions hope Davies won’t be the only new recruit.

They narrowly lost out on Croatian defender Duje Caleta Car, who was ready to board a private jet to Manchester Airport according to reports in France before Marseille got cold feet when they couldn’t find a replacement. So, they have turned their attentions to Ozan Kabak, a young Turkish defender at Schalke.

Arsenal’s much-maligned centre-half Mustafi could play a major part in the transfer, too – he is chasing a permanent transfer to Schalke which could encourage the club to release Kabak to Anfield.

Right-footed and strong in the air, Kabak is less of a panic buy – should a deal be secured. He is not new on the radar, he has been linked with a move to Liverpool before, and at just 20 years old he has plenty of development in him. So, you suspect the chase for Davies, who can also play at left-back, was something of a back-up operation.

Over at Spurs, the strange case of Dele Alli was another curious transfer deadline tale. Heavily linked with Paris St Germain, Tottenham blocked the deal and so the England international looks set to sit on the bench for the rest of the season unless he can heal wounds with manager Jose Mourinho. That outcome may partly have been due to Inter Milan’s refusal to allow Christian Eriksen to return to London as Alli’s replacement.

Spurs did, however, allow Irish star Troy Parrott to leave on loan, and he has already begun training with his new club, Ipswich Town.

Brighton, who signed Tariq Lamptey from Chelsea this time last year, also did well as they announced the arrival of talented 19-year-old Moises Caicedo from Ecuadorian top-flight side Independiente del Valle on a four-and-a-half-year contract.

The focus for the rest of the night, however, will be on whether Liverpool can secure any of their defensive targets. It's unlikely to get more exciting than that, not when no-one has any money in the pot.

As Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted: “There won’t be anyone in, so don’t stay up late.”