The January transfer window speculation is already starting to gather momentum. One player who is being linked with a move away from Liverpool this January is centre back Martin Skrtel.
In the summer, Skrtel was heavily linked with a move away from Anfield having rarely featured for the Reds in the second half of last season. Brendan Rodgers opted to drop Skrtel and replace him with Jamie Carragher. This move suggested that Skrtel no longer had a future at the club and would be one of the first names to be shipped off. But the giant 28-year old defender is still at Liverpool and is now a regular starter in the new look 3-5-2 formation.
But reports in the Mirror continue to link Skrtel with a move away, with his former club Zenit St Petersburg reportedly set to bid £16million for a central defender come January. Skrtel would be top of Zenit’s wish list at this moment as they have tried to resign him in the last two transfer windows.
Looking at it from Liverpool’s point of view; Skrtel is one of the stand out players right now and getting a chance to impress, but this could simply be Brendan Rodgers’ plan of playing him and putting him in the shop window. Or Rodgers could simply be saying that Skrtel is one of his first choice defenders and he plans to keep him.
If Rodgers does indeed want to sell Skrtel come January then I think we would not be short of buyers as his form has been very impressive. And for a fee of £16million, it would be a good bit of business for Liverpool as there would still be Toure, Sakho, Agger and Ilori to fill in at the back with the proceeds from the Skrtel sale going to buy a new right back or central midfielder.
We must keep him. We will need all the depth we can next season when we back in the UCL.