‘Outstanding’ youngster could still get his chance for Liverpool’s first-team this season

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The story of Liverpool’s January transfer window so far has been one of failed loan moves.

As things stand, four players have had season-long loans cancelled at the halfway stage. Nat Phillips has also come back from a failed stint at Celtic with tail between legs. Another, Billy Koumetio, is reportedly expected to return, too.

And although it isn’t official at the time of writing, quotes from Preston manager Ryan Lowe have this weekend confirmed that Calvin Ramsay is set to be another Liverpool youngster brought back to the mothership.

That’s obviously bad news for Ramsay. He played just twice for Preston in the first-half of the season, with injuries playing a big part in that.

Nevertheless, his failure to break into the Championship side’s team could yet have a silver lining. Ramsay is a right-back, a position that Liverpool are currently a little light in.

With Trent Alexander-Arnold injured and Joe Gomez the only senior left-back option, Conor Bradley has been fast-tracked to the starting XI. Bradley looks set to take his chance, but the Northern Irishman needs a back-up. For the time being, that now has to be Ramsay.

Ramsay returns for Liverpool role

Right now, it seems impossible for Ramsay to be playing for Liverpool. Two appearances in the Championship would normally mean being a million miles from Jurgen Klopp’s senior team.

But the circumstances dictate that that won’t be the case for Calvin.

As we’ve seen this season once again, injuries happen in football. Liverpool are playing a fair amount of games at a fair rate once their winter break concludes next weekend.

Should anything happen to Bradley – and touch wood it won’t – but should it, Ramsay will be the man Liverpool have to turn to.

Of course, this will all depend on how long Trent is out for. The current expectation is around three weeks, which wouldn’t give Ramsay long to settle into the back-up role, or pick up some unlikely minutes.

But Alexander-Arnold’s is a knee injury. They can sometimes take longer than expected. This obviously wouldn’t be the scenario any Liverpool fan would want, but if it is longer than the allocated time-frame, Ramsay may still prove useful.

On the back of what we’ve seen over the past 18 months, the Scotland international would struggle to make that step up. But he’s clearly got talent. Ramsay was labelled as an ‘outstanding’ player by former Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin. If he can put the injuries behind him then he’s still hopefully got a future at Liverpool.

Having hit rock bottom this month, it would be uplifting to see the 20-year-old come back from the brink over the next weeks. It still seems unlikely, but Bradley is the only man in his way right now. Stranger things have happened.