Clinton Morrison has voiced his surprise that Liverpool didn’t try to push for the signing of James Ward-Prowse during the summer transfer window.
The Reds instead made three unsuccessful bids for his then-Southampton teammate Romeo Lavia, with both players eventually leaving St Mary’s. The 28-year-old signed for West Ham in a £30m deal in mid-August (BBC Sport) despite being linked with a move to Anfield earlier in the summer.
Speaking on Sky Sports News on Sunday (8 October), the former Crystal Palace striker couldn’t believe the midfielder’s eventual transfer fee and had expected Jurgen Klopp’s side to have tried hard to get him.
Morrison said of Ward-Prowse: “You can talk about his free-kicks and set pieces, which is brilliant because it can get you 10-15 goals a season, but he has got more than that. You saw that he is running beyond Michail Antonio. He can pass the ball. He can do everything a midfielder can do.
“I was surprised West Ham got him for such a cheap price because I thought there would be a lot of other teams, like Liverpool, in the market for him, but he has gone to West Ham and he has started the season ever so well.”
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We can only imagine that Liverpool might’ve had reservations about Ward-Prowse’s age, or were focusing their efforts on a natural defensive midfielder at the time of the 28-year-old’s switch to West Ham (hence the move for Wataru Endo), for he’d have seemed a hugely astute signings in many ways.
He’d long since proven his worth in the Premier League for Southampton, would’ve helped with the homegrown rules for domestic and European squads, would’ve offered a scoring and creative threat and would’ve filled the leadership void vacated by the exits of Jordan Henderson and James Milner.
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While the Reds did pull off excellent business with the signings of Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch in particular, the former Saints captain has shown for his new club that he could’ve been a dream capture at Anfield.
Ward-Prowse already has two goals and six assists in just nine games for West Ham so far (Transfermarkt). Imagine what those numbers could be like if he were routinely supplying the likes of Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz at Liverpool.
We can very much resonate with Morrison’s comments, but thankfully the midfielders that Klopp did sign during the summer have largely shown plenty of promise in their first few months on Merseyside.
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1. James Ward-Prowse is 28 going on 29 and from a Moneyball point of view offers no resale value.
2. Being 28 going on 29 this will be his last big pay day and he will want to rinse any club he joins to the max.
3. Aside from his set pieces he doesn’t have the game to improve the Liverpool midfield, whereas Szoboszlai, Gravenberch (give him time) and Mac Allister are already better than him and younger.
4. He can’t play DM so there is no comparison with Endo.
5. Most importantly he is simply not a Liverpool type player and would not improve us in the long term or even shorterm.