Liverpool replace Mignolet with Adrian for free
LONDON: Spanish goalkeeper Adrian signed for Champions League holders Liverpool on a free transfer hours after Simon Mignolet left to return to his home country and sign for Belgian side Club Brugge. Adrian, 32, will be an understudy to the European champions’ first choice ‘keeper Alisson. The Spaniard has previous experience in the Premier League having played more than 100 times for West Ham in the past six years.
“I’m very ambitious, I come here to try to win everything, to try to push Ali from the first minute and to make us better,” Adrian told the Liverpool website. “We have many competitions ahead we’re going to fight for it and try to get them. “I’m looking forward to playing my first game at Anfield and to win as many games as we can.” Mignolet, capped 22 times by his country, had earlier signed a five-year-deal after passing his medical costing Brugge a reported £6.4 million (7 million euros).
“It’s official, Simon is a Bruges boy!” the Belgian top flight club said on its website, alongside a video of Mignolet arriving at his new home. Mignolet, 31, for his part tweeted a fulsome farewell to Liverpool. “It’s been a great ride,” Mignolet said. “There have been ups, downs and everything in between, but I’ll always look on my time at Anfield with fondness. “I have no regrets. I’ve given my all and I’ve always done my best to wear the shirt with pride, and to represent the club with dignity and professionalism. “Once part of the family, always part of the family. Deep inside I’ll always be a Red.”
Liverpool won the Champions League last season but the Belgium international hardly figured as the English outfit conquered Europe for the sixth time and finished just a point behind Premier League champions Manchester City. Mignolet played for Liverpool on more than 200 occasions after arriving from Sunderland in 2013.
Captain calm
Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson says manager Jurgen Klopp’s judgment in the transfer market should not be questioned despite a lack of heavyweight signings in the transfer window. The Reds have added just teenagers Sepp Van Den Berg and Harvey Elliott to a squad that won the Champions League and finished second to Manchester City with the third-highest points total in Premier League history.
There has been criticism of Klopp for not making a significant signing to help his side’s quest for a first domestic title since 1990, but Henderson said that was unwarranted. “If the manager hasn’t signed anyone then he knows better than everyone else,” said the midfielder. “I think we’ve got a fantastic squad of players, we’ve shown that. We can use everybody, we’ve got big players (Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain) coming back from long-term injuries, which is like new signings as the manager says.
“We believe we’ve got a strong group in the changing room, a strong team, and we’ve just got to keep learning, keep improving on the training pitch, keep doing what we’ve been doing for a long time now, and keep staying hungry for more success.” Liverpool lost to City on penalties in the Community Shield on Sunday but their secondhalf display suggests they can challenge the reigning champions this season, which gets under way on Friday when the Reds host Norwich.
However, Henderson stressed the quality of the performances could be improved despite the club’s impressive points tally. “We can’t always think back to what we did last season. We’re looking forward, we want to improve as a team,” he said. “There were a lot of games last year where we didn’t play particularly well and play as well as we like and we did grind results out at times. “Performance-wise we can be much better and that’s what we’ve got to focus on. Performance has got to be improving all the time.”