Tiago Ilori’s Liverpool career appears to be over without playing a competitive fixture for Brendan Rodgers’ team after he joined Aston Villa on loan with a view to a permanent transfer. Liverpool also hoped to remove the £65,000-a-week José Enrique from their wage bill but interest from West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland failed to materialise into a deal.
Ilori, who cost Liverpool £7m from Sporting Lisbon in 2013, had spent the previous two seasons on loan at Granada and Bordeaux but aimed to challenge for a first -team place at Anfield this term. However, Rodgers appears to have been unconvinced by the London-born defender and he was made available ahead of deadline day.
The 22-year-old rejected a proposed loan move to Sunderland before Villa proved a more tempting offer. Tim Sherwood’s team will pay an initial £1m loan fee with an option to buy Ilori outright next summer. It is understood the permanent fee would allow Liverpool to recoup their costs on the Portugal under-21 international.
Enrique is expected to see out the final 12 months of his lucrative Liverpool contract after failing to follow Fabio Borini and Mario Balotelli, the other unwanted players who had trained apart from Rodgers’ first-team squad this summer, out of the club. The former Newcastle United defender took to Twitter to say: “Just to let you all know that it wasn’t any offer from west brom for me. I’m happy to stay and fight for my place.”
But Liverpool had given José Enrique and Albion permission to discuss a permanent transfer.
