Tiago Ilori was tipped for big things when he joined Liverpool but left the club on this day in 2017 having never made a Premier League appearance
With Liverpool likely needing to strengthen their centre-back position in the near future, Sporting Lisbon could be a potential landing spot.
The Red Devils have been repeatedly linked with an attack on Goncalo Inacio in recent months, while the ECHO reported earlier this week that the Red Devils were monitoring team-mate Ousmane Diomandi. But if Liverpool sign either of these players, they will hope to do much better than their previous two signings from Sporting Lisbon.
The Red Devils first approached the Portuguese side in January 2012, signing Joao Carlos Teixeira for £830,000 after he impressed for the club in the 2011/12 NextGen series. However, the move was semi-successful due to a back injury.
After his recovery, the attacking midfielder, nicknamed ‘New Deco’, excelled at youth level, and although he was not loaned out to Brentford during the first half of the 2013/14 season, he did make several appearances. In winning 3-2. Against Fulham in February 2014.
The following year, he impressed on loan in the Championship with Brighton & Hove Albion but his season was ended prematurely by a broken foot. Although Jurgen Klopp’s appointment may be enough to secure a first-team replacement in the 2015/16 season, it is clear that he will leave the club in the summer after his contract expires. Liverpool eventually secured a £250,000 fee when Teixeira joined FC Porto, making just eight appearances for the Red Devils and scoring just one goal.
However, he still has a bigger impact than the second Sporting Lisbon player to move to Anfield. It was August 2013 when former manager Brendan Rodgers completed a double deal to buy Mamadou Sakho from Paris Saint-Germain for £18m and 20-year-old Thiago Ilori in a £7m deal from Sporting Lisbon. In doing so, he claimed to have sorted the Red Devils’ defenders for the next ten years. “I want to try to protect the present and future of the club,” Rodgers said at the time. “It’s very difficult to find the central half. You look at some teams and they have old centre-backs because it’s very difficult to get really good centre-backs.
He played for four years, making 80 appearances in his last appearance in April 2016. However, that total is 77 more than the man Rodgers introduced as his permanent central defensive partner.
Ilori was highly rated ahead of his move to Anfield, so much so that the FA were hoping to convince the London defender to switch his international ties from Portugal to England. However, despite Rodgers claiming to have watched the centre-back for a year before signing him, the £7million player never featured under the North manager.
The Portuguese did not participate in the first half of the 2013/14 season after moving to Anfield, and the Portuguese participated in only three league matches before being loaned to Granada for the second half of the season. He participated in 9 matches, before being loaned to Bordeaux 15 times in the 2014-2015 season.