Why Jose Enrique is the bargain of the summer

Liverpool have signed Jose Enrique from Newcastle for a fee thought to be £5.5million. This in my opinion is the bargain of the summer as we have gotten one of the best left-backs in the Premier League. I remember at the start of the summer when Newcastle were talking about selling him for £15million and Dalglish did the right thing not to sign him then and rather wait for the price to come down.

The likes of Arsenal and even Barcelona were rumoured to want to sign Enrique, that just shows how highly teams rate him. Former Liverpool left-back, Alan Kennedy also believes that we have gotten a steal with Enrique.

“I think Enrique is going to be a very good signing for us,” Kennedy said to the Liverpool Echo.

“He will strengthen the squad in a position that has been a real problem over the last year or so. Four or five players have tried to make that position their own but haven’t managed to do it. Liverpool have been interested in Enrique for a long time and I remember when we played against Newcastle at Anfield back in May I was very impressed with him. He’s confident on the ball, he’s quick, he’s strong and he likes to get forward.

“I think he’s a steal at that price – the fee really is nothing for a player of his calibre. He was one of the best left-backs in the Premier League last season.”

It will be interesting to see if Dalglish opts to start with Enrique on Saturday against Sunderland. I doubt it as I see Aurelio getting the starting nod if he is fit enough to start. At most Enrique has had only one training session with his Liverpool team mates and thus he may not yet be up to speed with what is going on at the club. Rather we give him a full week to train and then throw him into the next game.