Report: Liverpool offer surprise first-team future to Ben Davies

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Ben Davies may have a future with Liverpool, according to reports. The Reds do see a long-term plan, it seems.

This comes from the Athletic. They claim Liverpool have told Ben Davies that he has a long-term future with the club.

Davies joined the club on February 1st from Preston North End. His arrival made complete sense, too – a relatively mature centre-back who came in for a very low fee.

Liverpool, of course, lacked centre-backs with decent experience. Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez were out for the season and Joel Matip had just followed them. It left the Reds with Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams as their only natural centre-backs in the first-team squad.

Neither had played even Championship level with any regularity, however. Williams had been in the 6th tier the previous season.

So in came Davies to offer some security. He arrived at the same time as Ozan Kabak, seemingly setting up a centre-back partnership for the rest of the season.

Fast-forward to now, though, and Davies hasn’t appeared once. Not even from the bench.

The real sign that Liverpool might not rate him all that highly is Williams getting back in the side. Kabak picked up an injury but Jurgen Klopp went back to the 20-year-old instead of trying Davies.

But the fact they haven’t had one look at Davies on the pitch is telling on its own. You’d think they’d at least have a look.

It all makes the Athletic’s claim surprising. They’re a solid source and we believe them – it just flies in the face of what we’ve seen (or not seen).

Liverpool are apparently willing to persist with Davies. Now, we don’t know if that means as a part of the first-team squad next season. We feel it’s more likely they ship him out on loan somewhere.

And maybe that’s a good option. He’s on a long-term deal, so why not see if a Premier League club or upper Championship side would play him for a year?

There’s also Celtic, who wanted to sign him on a free transfer this summer before he joined Liverpool. In fact, Sky Sports went as far as saying there was a deal between the two parties.

Maybe that’s a decent way to have a look at Davies before entirely giving up on him. At the very least, Liverpool could move him on for a little profit at the end.