Ben Davies looks set to be on the move this summer after being left out of Liverpool’s squad for their pre-season tour of Asia, with a return to the Championship seemingly looking likely.
The defender joined the Reds from Preston North End for an initial £500k in February 2021 as they responded to their severe defensive injury crisis, but failed to make an appearance for the club with Nat Phillips, Ozan Kabak and Rhys Williams still ahead of him in the pecking order at the time. Warming the bench eight times, with only four coming in the Premier League, he featured twice in pre-season last year before leaving for Sheffield United on loan.
Now back at Anfield, the 26-year-old is understood to want to sort his future out and has been the subject of interest, with Celtic and Middlesbrough both contacting the Reds earlier this summer. Meanwhile, the latest reports credit both Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City with interest in the defender.
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With a permanent exit more likely as a result, the ECHO reported earlier this summer that Liverpool would be looking for an overall package worth around £4m for Davies, with club bosses pointing to the deals Rangers did with Brighton & Hove Albion and Bologna when signing Connor Goldson and Filip Helander in 2018 and 2019 as a framework for such a fee. However, they are aware, such a package would have to be incentivised to reach such a potential figure rather than it being guaranteed.
Whether the Reds receive such a bid for Davies remains to be seen, but the Daily Mail reports that they are currently in talks with Blackburn over a potential switch. Meanwhile, Rovers boss Jon Dahl Tomasson, who played for AC Milan in Liverpool’s famous 2005 Champions League final win in Istanbul, hasn’t ruled out a move for the defender.
"He's a very good player, isn't he?" the Dane told Lancs Live . "He hasn't played a lot of games at Liverpool but there are a lot of players we are interested in. We want the best players we can get but we can't buy every player or we'd have to rob a bank. I would never say one player, he is a good player and he is one of them.
"It's about quality, wages and you know how things work in football. We are trying to do the right things to get the right people in. It's not my department, the club know what I want and they are working hard to provide it…The club know what I think about the team, what we need to get in, and the club are working really hard. I think they will come. It’s about patience and getting the right choices. It’s a new chapter. We’re coming from a little bit behind in that way, but the club is working very hard to arrange them.”
The ECHO understands that Blackburn are indeed in the frame to sign Davies, but there is a lot of concrete interest in the defender, which is why he wasn’t included in the Liverpool squad that travelled to the Far East. Middlesbrough also remain interested in the 26-year-old while it’s understood that Stoke City are ramping up their own interest.
As a result, with competition for Davies’ signature so strong, his next destination still remains unclear. However, having already made back their initial £500k payment for the centre-back courtesy of the loan fee that took him to Sheffield United last year, Liverpool are well-placed to make a comfortable profit on a player who never kicked a competitive ball for the club.
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