Simon Mignolet looks set to return to Belgium while Liverpool have sorted an interesting replacement.
Ahead of Liverpool’s Community Shield loss to Manchester City, Simon Mignolet took to social media to help whet appetites:
First trophy of the season up for grabs! Let’s do this Reds!
💪🏻⚽🏆 #communityshield #YNWA pic.twitter.com/G1BScPwjCO
— Simon Mignolet (@SMignolet) August 4, 2019
Mignolet was on the bench, as back-up to Alisson Becker, but he did not feature over the 90 minutes of entertaining action or the penalty shoot-out, which City edged 5-4.
The Belgian’s sub role looks to be his final duty for the Reds. Liverpool have accepted a bid of £6.4m from Club Brugge for Mignolet, with the final figure potentially rising to £8.2m. After 155 appearances for Mignolet [but only two since Alisson’s arrival], Mignolet is set to head home.
Jurgen Klopp still has Ireland U21 goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher to call on while Loris Karius [Besiktas] and Kamil Grabara [Huddersfield] are still on the books but technically on loan until June 2020. Last month, Liverpool brought 35-year-old former Preston and Bolton goalkeeper Andy Lonergan on a pre-season tour as they were short of senior goalies.
Klopp is now bringing in former West Ham goalkeeper Adrián ahead of the Thursday closure of the summer transfer window.
The 32-year-old Spanish goalkeeper was released by the Hammers at the end of last season, having lost his starting place to Lukas Fabianski. He had been considering a move to Real Valladolid but did not take long to decide upon an Anfield switch after he heard the European champions were interested.
Adrián represents Liverpool’s fourth signing of the summer after the capture of Lonergan and teenagers Sepp van den Berg and Harvey Elliott.
