When recently asked to contribute to a documentary looking back at Liverpool's 30-year wait to be crowned champions of England, Brendan Rodgers considered his own brush with immortaility. Back in 2014, the Reds were within a whisker of claiming the Premier League title under the Northern Irishman, only to stumble with the finishing line in sight and finish second behind Manchester City. “We were great going forward, we were just that bit inconsistent defending,” said Rodgers. “I’ve got no doubt that if we had Virgil van Dijk in our back four at that point we would have won the league.” In fact, in 2017 Rodgers claimed he had wanted to sign Van Dijk before the centre-back, then only approaching his 23rd birthday, switched from Groningen in Holland to Celtic. "When I was at Liverpool I asked about Van Dijk when he was at Groningen and then at Celtic," said the Reds boss.
Instead, Liverpool had to look elsewhere. And seven years ago today saw the arrival of two central defenders who experienced vastly differing Anfield careers.
Neither, though, was the answer ultimately provided by Van Dijk.
On a busy day in September 2013, Liverpool sealed a £15million move for Mamadou Sakho from Paris Saint-Germain while also snapping up Tiago Ilori from Sporting Lisbon for £3.5m.
Rodgers had already brought in Kolo Toure on a free transfer from Manchester City as he sought to address the retirement of Jamie Carragher and the unreliable fitness of Daniel Agger.
The double swoop was reminiscent of Roy Evans' defensive overhaul in 1994 having signed Phil Babb and John Scales within 24 hours of each other, the latter whose arrival anniversary is also today.
Ilori, then 20, was viewed as one for the future, but had three loan spells and didn't kick a ball until three FA Cup starts under Jurgen Klopp in January 2016. After two years in the Championship at Reading, he's now back at Sporting as a bench warmer.
Sakho, however, was the main catch, and while injuries - a common problem during his time at Anfield - restricted him to 18 starts in his first season, he was in the starting line-up that conceded 10 goals in five games in the closing weeks to scupper their chances of the title. He was out of favour at the beginning of the next season and left the stadium after discovering he wasn't even on the bench for the Anfield derby against Everton. It was a hint at the lack of discipline that would cause his Reds career to unravel. Rodgers switching to a three-man defence midway through the season offered Sakho a route back into the first team, and he ended the campaign with 27 appearances, all but two as a starter. However, injury meant he was absent for the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Aston Villa. The Frenchman was benched once again for the new term, but worked his way back into the team under new boss Klopp and became a regular, scoring in the famous Anfield wins over Borussia Dortmund and Everton in April 2016.
That derby triumph was to be his last game for the club. It emerged Sakho had failed a drugs test - which took place at the Europa League draw at Manchester United the previous month - after using a fat-burning substance, a situation compounded by not informing the club of what he was taking. A 30-day ban meant he missed the rest of the season including the Europa League final defeat to Sevilla. That it transpired the following year that the substance wasn't actually on the banned list only made matters worse for the defender, who subsequently sought to sue the World Anti-Doping Agency for £13m.
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