Liverpool SIGN Brazilian Star & LOAN Him: What Is It With Rodgers & Loaning Players?

Liverpool confirmed a deal after the deadline day to sign Brazilian midfielder Allan Rodrigues de Silva from  Internacional via their official website.

The 18-year-old has been sent on a half-season loan to Finnish side Seinajoen Jalkapallokerho known as SJK immediately after the announcement. The midfielder joined Liverpool earlier this summer after his club allowed him to spend time at Liverpool and he was a part of the first team squad for Liverpool which travelled to Finland to face HJK Helsinki last month.

The fee is reported to be just £0.5 million for the promising midfielder who caught the eye of the Liverpool scouts during the Frenz International Cup held in Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, where both the Merseyside and Brazilian clubs’ under-18s teams featured, and talks to bring the player from Porto Alegre to Anfield started back then.

Liverpool also signed to more promising youngsters this summer with 16-year-old Bobby Adekanye from Barcelona and 17-year-old Brooks Lennon from Real Salt Lake.

Questionable decision?

Now, Liverpool fans did not welcome the decision from their beloved club to send the player on loan to Finland and their frustration over the management is very much right. It will be extremely difficult for the young kid to adjust to the conditions in Finland after leaving Brazil for the first time. Adapting in Europe after arriving from the warm climate of South America is difficult and Finland is geographically a totally different place from Brazil.



Liverpool should have kept him to play for their under 18 and under 21 sides as the gifted player takes his time to adapt to the conditions of Merseyside. Even if they loaned him, it should have been to a Championship club where he could have developed his physical game.

Another Suso in the making?

Fans were furious the club officials over the dubious decision and most of the criticism rained on the manager Brendan Rodgers. Liverpool fans some of their favourite youngsters like Suso, Daniel Pacheco not getting proper chance for the first team in the past and they had to leave the club in order to get playing time. Let’s recall the story of current AC Milan player Suso’s career at Liverpool and it will be quite clear why the fans worried about the future of Allan.

The Spanish playmaker was a heartthrob of Liverpool fans and they expected him to become a key part of their future. He joined Liverpool in 2010 rejecting Real Madrid and showed his quality for the youth set ups of Liverpool as well as Spain. He won UEFA European U-19 Championship in 2012 with Spain and captained Spain under 20 team in 2013 under 20 World Cup.

He impressed for Liverpool in the 2012-13 season and showed great promise for a youngster but was loaned to La Liga side Almeria the very next season. He had an impressive season for the struggling side scoring 3 goals and assisting 9 from 35 games for them and was the second highest under 21 assist maker in the League after Koke.

But after returning from the loan spell, he made only one appearance for Liverpool in six months that too from bench in a League Cup against Middlesbrough match where he scored one goal and also scored another two goals in the crazy dramatic penalty shootout for Liverpool to win the match  14-13 on penalties. He was sold to AC Milan in January for a nominal fee. He could be a star for Liverpool but mismanagement from Rodgers made him leave the club and he could think that he made a wrong decision to join Liverpool snubbing Real Madrid in the past.

Players like Joao Carlos Teixeira, Tiago Ilori and Luis Alberto Romero are all victims like Suso and all are playing outside Liverpool away on loan apart from Teixeira who is still hopeful to get chance staying at the club. It raised some eyebrows when Liverpool signed Luis Alberto Romero in 2013 when they had highly talented players of the same age at their ranks in Suso and Teixeira and what we saw is Romero rotting on the bench for one whole season and getting loaned out for the next season. Tiago Ilori is another player who never got a chance to showcase his talent at Anfield since signing for them two years ago despite being highly rated across Europe and representing his nation’s youth set ups at the highest levels. Rickie Lambert, Oussama Assaidi, Nuri Sahin, Iago Aspas are among the senior players who were signed by Rodgers and never had ample chance to prove themselves and it would be harsh on them to call them as “Flops”.

Liverpool fans would hope that the journey of Allan will not go in the same way. But the management and officials should be careful with youngsters otherwise they won’t be able to attract them in future.