Transfer deadline day: Liverpool the big winners with Davies and Kabak signings

For Ben Davies, a 25-year-old who has spent his entire career outside the top flight, it was a surreal move that appeared to come out of the blue as Liverpool gazumped Celtic to sign him — even though the player was going to be out of contract in June.

Liverpool dominated transfer deadline day as they finally addressed their defensive dilemma by bringing in two new defenders – after revealing that Joel Matip will be out until the end of the season with ankle ligament damage.

Matip’s injury, added to long term injuries for Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez, explains why the club were so desperate to bring in players at all costs; and with the window now shut, their successful pursuit of Preston defender Ben Davies and Schalke youngster Ozan Kabak turned out to be the highlights.

They may not be the names you would normally associate with Liverpool’s well-planned transfer activity, but in strange times new tactics are clearly required; and Matip’s latest injury certainly explains the intensity of Liverpool’s last-minute work.

For Davies, a 25-year-old who has spent his entire career outside the top flight, it was a surreal move that appeared to come out of the blue as Liverpool gazumped Celtic to sign him - even though the player was going to be out of contract in June.

He cost less than €600,000 (although Liverpool could pay up to €1.5m more in extras over time), leaving many people either perplexed by the deal or relishing the kind of fairy tale that only football can write.

What attracted Liverpool was Davies’ strong left foot, good array of passing and competitive mentality. But even the player and his new manager admitted it was only unusual circumstances which handed him a break he could not even have dreamt about.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said: "What I like about Ben is it just shows that each situation creates opportunities. I think it’s probably clear that in a normal transfer window, without any issues, we would not look at Preston.

"But since we saw him and since our situation got clearer and clearer – the problems we had – we got really excited about it and thought, ‘Wow.’ "He’s a boy who played his whole life for Preston, is around the corner pretty much. We see the quality and we see the potential as well because he’s 25 and there’s a lot to come for him.

"I love a lot about his play. He’s a really good footballer, looks like a proper leader, good in challenges, looks football smart, can play different positions because he played in a back three.” 

Kabak may be a longer-term prospect, even if his Schalke side are bottom of the Bundesliga and shipping goals alarmingly this season. He is only 20 years old, has been on Liverpool’s radar before and arrives on loan with a permanent deal worth up to 20m Euros in the offing if all goes well.

It wasn’t only players coming in at Anfield, either. Liverpool also agreed to loan Takumi Minamino to Southampton and sent young defender Sepp van den Berg to Preston.

What will further comfort the champions, who play Brighton on Wednesday before a huge title clash at Manchester City on Sunday, is that none of their biggest rivals played any major part in deadline day.

Arsenal, happy to have Martin Odegaard in the bag, focused on clearing the decks rather than bringing players in, agreeing to end Shkodran Mustafi’s contract so that he could replace Kabak at Schalke. They also allowed Ainsley Maitland-Niles to move to West Brom on loan, with Joe Willock heading to Newcastle - having already offloaded Mesut Ozil, of course.

Manchester United, who were famously lampooned for signing Odion Oghalo last January, were so confident of a quiet day this time that manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told fans ‘not to stay up late’ – and he was true to his word, whilst Manchester City and Chelsea were equally relaxed.

Over at Spurs, out of favour Dele Alli was heavily linked with Paris St Germain, but Tottenham blocked the deal – perhaps because Inter Milan refused to allow Christian Eriksen to return to London as Alli’s replacement.

Elsewhere, Everton and Fulham battled it out for Bournemouth striker Josh King, after both clubs agreed a deal, with Everton winning a last-minute victory to get their man.

Brighton also had a good day as they announced the arrival of talented 19-year-old Moises Caicedo from Ecuador's Independiente del Valle on a four-and-a-half-year contract, one of only a handful of permanent deals on a day dominated by loan moves.

Celtic left it late to finally make their only signing of the window as they announced the loan capture of Everton right back Jonjoe Kenny. Then, in the final hour, Everton and Fulham battled it out for Bournemouth’s Josh King.

In all, 70% of transfers in the window were loan deals. It felt strange, but history could prove that Liverpool did clever business in difficult times.