Liverpool Agree Enrique Fee

Now, isn't this a better way to do business? You make your target known, but then you wait out an unstable and frankly slapstick-like club until they know they have to sell and you get your man for half of what you were originally told he'd cost. Certainly a different approach than one we've seen all summer, if not better.

Anyway, Jose Enrique is on his way to Melwood for a medical and the discussion of personal terms, which most of the time seem a formality unless he's asking for live boys once a week. He'll cost 6.5 million pounds, which is way under what we heard earlier in the summer, with numbers like 10 and 12 being thrown about. This seems like an absolute bargain.

While we all love Fabio Aurelio here, you simply can't count on him to stay in any sort of human form for two to three weeks straight. We've never seen him do it. And once he breaks down, the options weren't all that appetizing. Jack Robinson shows promise, but you can't chuck an 18 year old out there for an extended stretch unless he's a true wunderkind. Glen Johnson filled in admirably on that side last season, but he only had to do that because another kid in John Flanagan had to be protected. Flanagan himself is probably better on the right. And Daniel Agger is needed far too much in the middle, and isn't really a full-back. He's got good pace for a center-half, but not a full-back.

So enter Enrique, who'll provide pretty much everything Aurelio did except with more pace, and probably just a shade more dependable defensively. Oh, and something won't go "Twang!" on him whenever there's a stiff breeze off the water. Whenever Aurelio was hurt, Liverpool became lopsided as only Johnson was getting forward from the back. When he was on the left and Martin Kelly would rain down the right, Johnson's off-footedness (which isn't really a word but we'll go with it), led to some awkward charges. This shouldn't be a problem any more, and the Reds should threaten down both flanks. We saw what Downing and Aurelio were capable of against Valencia, the mind races.

Totally positive on this one.