Joao Carlos Teixeira
The midfielder has been imaginatively compared with Deco, and is a product of the Sporting CP academy in Portugal.
Sporting are eager to receive a fee for their player, as his contract runs out at the end of this season, and as with many clubs in the current climate their financial problems mean that they are willing to sell young prospects to help balance their books.
Having not played for the first team in Lisbon, Liverpool are likely to give him a start in the youth or reserve teams with a view to promoting him to the first team squad for next season. Fans of the club will no doubt be excited by a signing which is more akin to the shrewd Moneyball spending which was talked about when the current owners bought the club, as until now their big money signings haven’t done much to warrant the amount paid.
Teixeira will come into the club without the weight of a big fee, and will hopefully be given the first team opportunities which young players need to develop their game at the highest level, and fulfil their potential. Too many of Liverpool’s youngsters in the past have been brought in then shipped out without getting much of a chance in the first team, but hopefully the new regime is doing things differently.
